A Swiss delegation yesterday met with Taiwanese representatives of nonprofit organizations and businesses in Taipei to discuss ways to tackle challenges in developing sustainable energy sources, including how to reduce dependence on nuclear power.
The Swiss delegation, led by the Trade Office of Swiss Industries (TOSI) in Taipei, said Switzerland decided to gradually phase out nuclear power following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011.
Nuclear power currently provides about 40 percent of Switzerland’s electricity.
The delegation said that the planned nuclear shutdowns would have to be offset by substantial improvements in energy efficiency and the ramping up of renewable energy options — policy goals that also figure prominently on Taiwan’s energy agenda.
TOSI described Switzerland and Taiwan as highly developed, export-oriented and resource-poor economies that are heavily dependent on energy imports and face growing challenges associated with the social acceptance of nuclear power.
As a result, the two nations should consider shifting toward a more sustainable economy as an opportunity for their industries to win greater shares of the growing global clean-technology market, the trade office said.
The hope of the half-day workshop on sustainable energy policies and opportunities for the “cleantech” sector was to get the two nations working together on sustainable energy sources, TOSI said.
“It [the Swiss delegation] shows that there is an interest from the Swiss side in what Taiwan is doing in this field and I think it is also a good opportunity to exchange different information,” TOSI director Jost Feer said at the opening of the workshop.
The topics covered included Switzerland’s energy strategy and Taiwan’s research on sustainable energy.
The workshop was organized by TOSI and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
RSS