The Cabinet has relaxed regulations governing the financial sector to encourage investment in “green” energy development, Premier William Lai (賴清德) told a forum on energy trends in Taipei on Tuesday.
Taiwanese insurance companies have invested about NT$5.35 billion (US$178.3 million) in the renewable energy sector, while financial entities are expected to invest up to NT$1.5 trillion after the Cabinet eased the regulations in the Banking Act (銀行法) earlier this month, Lai said.
The government aims to produce 3 gigawatts of electricity from solar energy by 2020 through a policy encouraging the installation of solar panels on household rooftops, he said.
Profits from electricity sold to Taiwan Power Co would be distributed among local governments and people participating in the project, he said, adding that households would receive between 10 and 20 percent of the revenue, while local governments would receive 3 percent.
If solar panels are added to illegal structures, local governments would be responsible for examining whether the installations are safe, Lai said.
“This does not mean that local governments would legalize illegal structures,” Lai said, without expanding.
The nation is less experienced in the development of wind energy, but local companies can learn from European energy developers that have invested in the nation’s wind energy sector, Lai said.
The Bureau of Energy is optimistic about the development of offshore wind energy, considering that projects with a capacity of more than 10 gigawatts are pending environmental impact assessments, bureau Deputy Director-General Lee Chun-li (李君禮) said.
Initially, the bureau planned to have 3 gigawatts of electricity generated from offshore wind farms by 2025, but upon seeing the many projects awaiting review, it has increased the capacity forecast to 4.2 gigawatts, Lee added.
However, during past environmental impact assessments, many offshore wind farm sites were found to overlap with shipping lanes or the habitat of Taiwanese humpback dolphins off the west coast, leading to the committee criticizing the bureau for not providing developers with thorough background information.
“The issue of shipping lanes is not the business of the Environmental Protection Administration,” which is supposed to deal with environmental issues, Lee said when asked to comment on the criticism.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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