The Changhua County Government on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with offshore wind energy developers from Canada and Singapore that will see them invest NT$157 billion (US$4.9 billion) in “renewable” energy resources.
The MOU was signed by Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Canada’s Northland Power (NPI) commercial development manager Sean McDermott, and Singapore-based Yushan Energy PTE Ltd chairman Ian Hatton, and was witnessed by Industrial Development Bureau Deputy Director-General Leu Jang-hwa (呂正華).
The companies also signed a joint MOU with National Changhua University of Education vice president Chen Ming-fei (陳明飛) to forge academic exchanges.
Changhua is ideally located to become a major contributor to “renewable” energy development because of its collaboration between academia, industry and government, Wei said, adding that the companies’ development teams had been investigating prospective development areas in the county, Wei added.
“NPI and Yushan have established positive relations with the community through the Hai Long offshore wind farm project,” he said.
The Hai Long project, in collaboration with NPI, is expected to contribute about 1,200 megawatts (MW) of power. The first stage of the project is to utilize turbines between 6MW and 8MW, with an installed capacity of about 700MW, the Yushan Web site said.
Wei said that the county government has been working closely with the central government on a policy to make Taiwan nuclear power-free by 2025.
“The exploration area off Changhua coast spans 2,300 square kilometers, which is an ideal development area for the world’s leading ‘green energy’ companies,” he said, adding that the area’s projected investment potential is about NT$1 trillion, with a maximum capacity of 4 gigawatts.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS