Hsing-yuan Power Corp (星元電力) won the government's approval to build a NT$10.6 billion (US$337 million) gas-fired electricity generator, the first in five years for a so-called independent power plant.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will issue a permit for Hsing-yuan to build a 490-megawatt plant in western Taiwan, the ministry said on its Web site yesterday. The last such permits were awarded in 2000.
"The Hsing-yuan project will help ensure steady power supply," Wang Yunn-ming (王運銘), deputy director-general of Bureau of Energy, said yesterday.
The government wants to boost generation capacity to maintain the nation's reserve margin, or the ratio of spare power generation capacity over peak demand, at 20 percent. As an independent power producer, Hsing-yuan will sell its electricity to state-controlled Taiwan Power Co (台電).
The nation's reserve margin will be around 20 percent this year, unchanged from last year, Wang said.
Hsing-yuan, a joint venture between Taiwan Cogeneration Corp (
Hsing-yuan will buy natural gas from the state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) and is now seeking a supplier for power generating facilities, Wu said.
The new power plant is slated to start producing power in March 2009, according to Wu.
Taiwan has eight operating independent power plants, accounting for 21 percent of the nation's installed capacity as of last month.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
RSS