More than 13,000 people have signed up for this year’s “green” power purchase program launched by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, exceeding the goal of 10,000, the ministry said on Saturday.
As of Thursday, a total of 13,251 institutional and individual customers had signed up for the program, surpassing the more than 7,000 who did so last year, when the goal was 4,000 subscriptions.
State-owned refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) has been the largest contributor to the program so far this year, pledging to purchase 8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of “green” energy, the ministry said.
Next in line are Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) at 6 million kWh, and integrated circuit packaging and testing firm Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光) at 4.5 million kWh, it said.
In July 2014, the ministry launched the program to encourage companies and individuals to purchase “green” power in a bid to promote renewable energy and environmental protection.
Under the program, companies or individuals agree to purchase a certain amount of electricity generated by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) using renewable sources at a premium of NT$1.06 per kWh over regular electricity prices.
The amount of “green” energy they subscribe to is then deducted from the power they use over the course of the year.
Proceeds from the program go to a renewable energy fund to support renewable energy applications, such as feed-in tariff subsidies.
The ministry said 2,994 institutions and 10,257 individuals have signed up for almost 86 million kWh of “green” power so far this year, well below the 1.31 billion kWh available.
Twenty-four institutional buyers have agreed to purchase more than 1 million kWh each, it said.
They include Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大, 3.36 million kWh), I-Mei Foods Co (義美食品, 3 million kWh), Taiwan’s largest steelmaker, China Steel Corp (中鋼, 3 million kWh), and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維, 3 million kWh), the ministry said.
Of the individual buyers who agreed to be identified, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) was the largest buyer, subscribing to 10,000kWh, the ministry said.
Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,台積電), which has traditionally been the program’s biggest participant, has yet to sign up this year.
Last year, TSMC bought 200 million kWh, after purchasing 100 million kWh in 2015.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS