National Sun Yat-sen University professor Chen Yang-yi’s (陳陽益) dream of using the Kuroshio Current to generate electricity has been proved viable after seven years of testing, and Chen hopes that by 2020 the project would be able to produce 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity per day.
Chen’s research team said that it reported the results to Premier Lin Chuan (林全) on Saturday.
According to Chen, the Kuroshio Power Plant Development Project late last month successfully deployed a floating platform anchored to a sunken ship, the first such platform in Taiwan and the first system to test the viability of power generation by ocean currents.
The project was the first to turn on low-speed generators submerged in water currents flowing at 0.45m per second, Chen said, adding that the generators were kept running for 60 hours.
The team first used tugboats off Pingtung County’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) last year to tow their third generator through ocean currents at a speed of 1.43m per second, Chen said, adding that average power generation was 32.57 kilowatts (kW).
That was the first time a research team towed a generator to simulate ocean current speeds and generated power, Chen said.
On July 23, the team deployed a multipurpose platform 25km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), which it anchored to a foundation 900m deep converted from an abandoned ship, Chen said.
From July 25 to July 29, the team ran consecutive tests as the Kuroshio Current flowed past the platform at a depth of 30m, with currents traveling at 1.27m per second, generating an average of 26.31kW, he said.
“It was a successful trial,” Chen said.
The team plans to move to Jioupeng Bay (九鵬灣) in Pingtung next year for a trial run, which it hopes will generate 2 megawatts for commercial operations, Chen said
If the test results are positive, the system could become a replacement for the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, as it is projected to be able to generate 1GW by 2020, which would move the nation one step closer to the government’s goal of a “nuclear-power-free homeland.”
While many nations have been attempting to use sea currents to generate power, most are still at the design stage and none have had a successful trial, he said.
According to Chen, Japan last year demonstrated a sea current generation system, but said that it would not conduct live trials until 2020, meaning that Taiwan’s research has surpassed that of other nations.
Chen, who served as president of the university’s College of Marine Science, launched the Kuroshio Current power generation research project in 2009 in collaboration with research teams from the National Applied Research Laboratories and National Cheng Kung University’s Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory.
The team also collaborates with Wanchi Steel Industrial Co (萬機鋼鐵) on technological matters.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS