Taiwan is targeting a 25-fold increase in biodiesel use in the next three years to cut reliance on energy imports and reduce emissions of harmful gases, a government official said yesterday.
Biodiesel use may rise to 100,000 kiloliter or 630,000 barrels in 2010, from an estimated 4,000 kiloliters this year, Yeh Huey-ching (
Energy from the nation's own resources, mostly hydropower and natural gas, accounts for just 1.8 percent of supplies. Taiwan will use soybeans, sunflower seeds and recycled cooking oil to make biodiesel and turn sweet potatoes and corn into ethanol, Yeh said yesterday.
"We are developing clean and alternative energy sources," Yeh said.
The biofuels plan may contribute to Taiwan eventually meeting as much as 8 percent of its own energy needs, he said, without giving a timeframe.
Lawmakers must approve the proposal, which requires a change to the Petroleum Management Law (
Biodiesel use last year was restricted to "a few hundred kiloliters" consumed mostly by garbage removal trucks. Consumption of ethanol for transportation may rise to 100,000 kiloliters in 2011, from zero now, he said.
The project needs the support of state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's two oil refiners. CPC will start selling diesel with 1 percent biofuel content at 82 gasoline stations later this month.
Starting September, eight CPC-run service stations will sell gasoline containing 3 percent ethanol and government departments will be encouraged to use the fuel, Yeh said.
Buses in Kaohsiung have been running on fuel that contains 2 percent biodiesel since January, he said.
Thirty-five lines and 79 buses in Chiayi County have started using fuel that contains 5 percent biodiesel since this month, Yeh said. Starting July 27, gas stations in Taoyuan and Chiayi counties will provide fuel containing 1 percent biodiesel to consumers, he said.
Taiwan had 2,615 gasoline stations as of last month, according to the energy bureau. Diesel demand totaled 6.3 million kiloliters last year, while 10.3 million kiloliters of gasoline was used.
Requiring all filling stations to sell biodiesel will mark a "revolutionary step" for Taiwan, Yeh said.
Biodiesel costs NT$53 (US$1.6) a liter, according to the energy bureau. That's more than double the NT$25.8 CPC charges for its premium diesel at filling stations.
Additional reporting by Jessie Ho
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
FORECAST: The greater computing power needed for emerging AI applications has driven higher demand for advanced semiconductors worldwide, TSMC said The government-supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has raised its forecast for this year’s growth in the output value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to above 22 percent on strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. In its latest IEK Current Quarterly Model report, the institute said the local semiconductor industry would have output of NT$6.5 trillion (US$216.6 billion) this year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, an upward revision from a 19.1 percent increase estimate made in May. The strong showing of the local semiconductor industry largely reflected the stronger-than-expected performance of the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing segment,
NVIDIA FACTOR: Shipments of AI servers powered by GB300 chips would undergo pilot runs this quarter, with small shipments possibly starting next quarter, it said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp chips, yesterday said that AI servers are on track to account for 70 percent of its total server revenue this year, thanks to improved yield rates and a better learning curve for Nvidia’s GB300 chip-based servers. AI servers accounted for more than 60 percent of its total server revenue in the first half of this year, Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told an online conference. The company’s latest production learning curve of the AI servers powered by Nvidia’s GB200 chips has improved after overcoming key component
RSS