CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) are on March 21 to sign a cooperation agreement to harness geothermal energy at Renze Hot Spring (仁澤溫泉) in Yilan County, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister publication of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday, citing sources at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Under the cooperation plans, CPC would drill one or two wells near the hot spring to conduct tests, the newspaper said, adding that if the tests are successful, the state-run refiner would hand over the project to Taipower, which would be tasked with generating geothermal power.
Given the large number of hot springs in the county, the potential for geothermal energy in Yilan is huge.
CPC said it selected Renze for the tests after geological evaluation because it has greater potential to develop geothermal energy than other areas in Taiwan.
Moreover, the plots of land on the site in Renze belong to the Forestry Bureau, making the process less costly and time-consuming than if the company were to lease land from private owners, the newspaper said.
CPC has ample experience drilling geothermal wells and in 1981 helped set up a geothermal power plant in the county’s Cingshuei (清水) area, which was shut down in 1993 as its generators became less efficient.
Taipower is interested in developing geothermal energy and is simultaneously engaged in a geothermal development project on Green Island (綠島) this year.
The state-run utility has carried out well tests and is on track to build a small geothermal power station capable of generating 200kW of electricity on the island by next year, the Liberty Times said, adding that Taipower plans to build a larger geothermal power plant there capable of generating 40 megawatts of electricity by 2020.
The Bureau of Energy has said that the government’s target is to install 200 megawatts of geothermal generation capacity by 2025, as part of the Democratic Progressive Party administration’s pledge to establish a “nuclear-free homeland” by that year.
Separately, CPC yesterday announced that it would lower fuel prices this week, as crude oil prices dropped last week after Saudi Arabia lowered its prices for Arab Light sold to Asia and amid a continued increase in US crude oil inventories.
CPC said in a statement that its average crude oil cost fell by US$1.11 per barrel to US$62.41.
That means it is to cut gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.2 per liter starting today after factoring in the New Taiwan dollar’s depreciation of NT$0.011 against the US dollar, the refiner said.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
RSS