Electricity generated by solar power soared 51.7 percent in the first 10 months of this year, becoming the nation’s second-largest alternative energy source, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
A total 3,418 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity was generated by solar energy, or 26.3 percent of total renewable energy generation over the period and 1.47 percent of overall electricity generation, the ministry said.
Hydropower remained the largest alternative energy source, generating 5,117GWh over the period, or 39.3 percent of total renewable energy generation, it said.
Electricity generated by waste treatment ranked third at 3,020GWh, while wind power came in fourth at 1,312GWh, ahead of biomass energy — including geothermal energy — at 140GWh, the ministry said.
Overall, renewable energy accounted for 13,006GWh, or 5.6 percent, of the nation’s total electricity generation over the period, it said.
Driven mainly by hydropower and solar power, the share of renewable energy in electricity generation surged 22.4 percent year-on-year during the period, the ministry said.
As the nation’s first commercial offshore wind farm started operations last month, the ministry said it expects robust growth from alternative energy sources next year.
Meanwhile, photovoltaic installed capacity rose 27.9 percent annually in the first nine months to 1,340 megawatts (MW), thanks to Tainan authorizing 320MW of installed capacity, the ministry said.
Changhua County also contributed, as it authorized 263MW of installed capacity, the ministry said, adding that Pingtung, Yunlin and Chiayi counties raised their photovoltaic installed capacity to 195MW, 180MW and 122MW respectively.
However, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan fell behind with installed capacity of 83MW and 31MW respectively, it said.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
RSS