Siemens AG yesterday said it has inked an agreement to supply two wind turbines to Swancor Industry Co Ltd’s (上緯) wind farm operating subsidiary as part of a project to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
Formosa I Wind Power Co (海洋風電公司), which is fully owned by Swancor, is to start operating two offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 8 megawatts in Miaoli County in the third quarter of next year, with plans to add 30 units by the fourth quarter of 2019.
GOVERNMENT GRANT
The company plans to invest a total of NT$22.6 billion (US$689.8 million) on a wind farm project after receiving a grant from the Bureau of Energy in 2012 to build offshore wind turbines with installed capacity of 200 megawatts.
Swancor said it had secured NT$2.6 billion in bank loans to finance the installation of the two wind turbines and it is seeking to raise more fund for the remainder by issuing new shares and other financial tools.
Siemens is in talks with Formosa I Wind Power and other wind farm operators to supply more wind turbines to help Taiwan develop renewable and offshore wind power, Siemens Ltd, Taiwan president and chief executive officer Erdal Elver told a media briefing.
The Munich, Germany-based company has also signed a contract to provide maintenance services for Formosa I Wind Power’s wind turbines over a 10-year period. Siemens said it would seek local manufacturers to supply select components at a lower cost.
INCENTIVES
The government has offered incentives to maximize renewable energy development and utilization in the nation.
Companies receiving government subsidies, including Taiwan Generations Corp (永傳能源), to build wind farms can sell the electricity to state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電) via fee-in electricity tariffs over a 20-year period, the Bureau of Energy has said.
The government aims to attract a total of NT$67 billion in investment to build 4 gigawatts in wind farm capacity by 2030, the Ministry of Economics Affairs has said.
Elver said the target is attainable as Taiwan has a potential installed capacity of between 6 gigawatts and 10 gigawatts given its unique location.
Swancor makes wind turbine rotor resin and counts China’s biggest wind turbine maker, Goldwind Science and Technology Co Ltd (金風科技), as one of its major clients.
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
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
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
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