There is room to raise feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for offshore wind energy this year, Bureau of Energy Director-General Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said yesterday, following criticism of a proposed cut.
“The FIT would likely increase, but the decision would have to be decided by the renewable energy review committee,” he told reporters at a media gathering in Taipei.
The 60-day preview period for the government’s renewable energy purchasing price for the next 20 years is to end on Jan. 29, and the review committee could come to a decision on it as soon as Jan. 30, Lin said.
Offshore wind developers have said that the government’s plans to cap the feed-in-tariff rate at NT$5.1060 per kilowatt hour for the next two decades, a 12.7 percent reduction from the previous price of NT$5.8498, would severely affect the viability of offshore wind projects.
At the same time, an impasse between the central and Changhua County governments prevented Orsted A/S, Hai Long Offshore Wind (海龍), a joint venture between Northland Power Inc and Yushan Energy Co (玉山能源), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and China Steel Corp (中鋼) from securing power purchasing agreements at last year’s rates, because last week’s deadline was missed.
Establishment permits cannot be issued without consent from Changhua County, which has experienced a handover of power, and said that more time would be needed for the administration to review the cases.
Lin said that he would visit newly elected Changhua County Commissioner Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) before the Lunar New Year holidays to iron out any differences.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six