The German Society for Solar Energy (DGS) has promised to help train technicians to use solar energy and provide education about utilizing solar energy, according to a memorandum signed yesterday by officials from the DGS and the Ministry of Education.
DGS executive Uwe Hartmann and Solar School Berlin chief Wolfgang Rosenthal visited Taiwan for a week at the ministry's invitation to explain Germany's achievements in renewable energy in the past 10 years, along with its national policies to promote solar energy.
The two men, who are also the members of German federal government's Energy Policy Committee, left Taipei late yesterday after signing the memorandum.
"In the past five years, Germany has put a lot of effort into studying solar energy and has promoted the application of solar energy in everyday life. At present, the output value of the renewable energy has outweighed that of the shipbuilding industry in Germany," Hartmann told a news conference yesterday.
"We found that Taiwan has abundant solar energy, twice as much as Germany does, as well as wind energy," he said. "I believe Taiwan has the potential to develop solar energy to generate electric power and for other uses," he said.
He said Taiwan's high consumption of electricity in the summer because of the use of air conditioners could be relieved by using more solar energy.
"I think it was a wrong for Taiwan to continue building nuclear power plants, yet push "a nuclear-free nation. It makes no sense," he said.
Hartmann noted that Germany's energy policy calls for the country's 19 nuclear-power plants to be shut down by 2050. Emissions of carbon dioxide should also be cut by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
"Renewable energy will account for 50 percent of the total energy consumption by then," he said.
"The power failures that have happened in the United States and Italy have enlightened us about the limits of exhaustible energy. We have to seek an energy [source] that is more sustainable, secure and environmentally friendly," he said.
Vice Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (
Fan told the news conference that the ministry will launch a program at the National Taipei University of Technology, with the assistance of Solar School Berlin, at the beginning of next year to train engineers, technicians and teachers in the research and promotion of solar energy
"Taiwan is still virgin territory in terms of exploiting solar energy," Fan said. "In order to carry out the idea of sustainable development and increase Taiwan's competitiveness, we have to catch up soon in the research and the application in renewable energy."
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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