Taiwan is lagging behind other countries in the development of its renewable energy sector, which will require comprehensive legislation and an injection of more money if the government wants to make sustainable production work in Taiwan, experts said.
"Exploiting green energy is a must for Taiwan, especially since it relies heavily on imported energy, which accounts for 97.9 percent of national consumption," Chan Shih-hung (詹世弘), chairman of the Taiwan Renewable Energy Industry Promotion Association (台灣新能源產業促進協會), said at the National Energy Conference on Monday.
In a report issued after the conference, the government said it plans to expand renewable energy sources to supply between 4 percent and 6 percent of the nation's power by 2020, and between 5 percent and 7 percent by 2025.
This corresponds to targets set after the previous national energy meeting in 1998.
The goal is much lower than that of countries like Germany, which plans to boost renewable energy sources to supply 12.5 percent of all its electricity by 2010, and Japan, with a goal of 10.8 percent over the same period, Chu Hsin-sen (曲新生), executive vice president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, said at the conference.
Taiwan wants to develop the means of harnessing solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and biomass energy, with hydroelectric and wind power having the most potential, Chu said.
The first step would be to pass the proposed statute on the development of renewable energy (再生能源發展條例) into law to serve as a guideline for the development of sustainable power sources, he said.
A lack of funds is another major obstacle, Chu said. He said the US, Japan and EU each devote around US$300 million a year to further the development of hydrogen power, while Taiwan has only budgeted US$7.8 million.
As a result, key technology and equipment to produce renewable energy are being controlled by foreign enterprises, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last