The PV Public Advocacy Committee, which is under the Taiwan branch of global industry association SEMI, last week released its policy recommendations for solar photovoltaic development in the nation, focusing on feed-in tariff (FIT) calculation for renewable energy sources and related policies, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday.
The committee’s policy recommendations urged a more transparent and consistent approach for the government’s FIT rate calculation and more education on solar photovoltaics, the Liberty Times reported.
The government should consider increasing tax incentives to attract investment in the solar energy sector, while agencies should adjust policies to facilitate a smooth transition for Taiwan’s energy transformation, the committee said.
The suggestions were made at the three-day Energy Taiwan trade show at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center from Wednesday to Friday last week.
Taiwan aims to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, with about 20 gigawatts (GW) to be generated from solar sources, 5.5GW from offshore wind and 1.5GW by hydroelectric, onshore wind and other renewable sources.
Based on a survey released by the committee, up to 78.4 percent of respondents supported accelerated development of photovoltaic energy in Taiwan, while 80 percent agreed that solar panels should be erected on idle land or shared spaces.
About 30 percent said they had heard that solar panels are toxic, while 70 percent said they did not know that solar panels are actually non-toxic, the survey showed.
More than 90 percent said they knew nothing about the government’s recycling mechanism for solar panels, the committee said, calling for more to be done to educate people.
Meanwhile, domestic solar energy investment has slowed significantly this year, Financial Supervisory Commission statistics showed.
In the first half of this year, solar energy investment only increased by NT$366 billion (US$11.96 billion) from the second half of last year, including NT$300 billion in new loans and NT$66 billion in new bond issuances, while local insurance companies did not add new investment in the renewable energy sector in the first six months of this year, commission data showed.
The commission has encouraged insurance companies to invest in green energy through private-equity funds, venture capital firms and investment management companies. As of the end of last year, seven insurers had invested NT$9.8 billion in eight solar power plants, data showed.
The SEMI committee said the stalled investment reflects the difficulty of obtaining financing for local solar power businesses, as well as the complexities of assessing construction requirements, investment returns and business risks for the sector, and the government needs to address these issues with necessary policies, the Liberty Times reported.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained