Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) yesterday agreed to reassess the metrics used in deciding the nation’s feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy.
Following a heated public hearing with solar power industry representatives in Taipei, Tseng said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) could improve its assessment of the FIT, which it had based on a report that the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) had been commissioned to conduct at a cost of more than NT$20 million (US$649,140).
The assessment metric relies on receipts and does not fully reflect the true cost of solar projects, industry representatives said yesterday, with many tipping their hat to protesters in Paris by donning yellow reflective vests.
“Moving forward, the ministry will hold separate public hearings to iron out conflicting views on the processes for selecting solar project receipts,” Tseng told reporters on the sidelines of the hearing, following criticism that the TIER report was flawed and based on questionable data.
“Still, many are calling for a FIT cut as the cost of solar energy and its setup costs drop around the globe,” Tseng said.
Falling solar energy prices were the result of China’s so-called “May 31 New Policy,” which has exacerbated the dumping of solar modules worldwide, while prices have remained relatively unchanged in Taiwan, PV Generation System Association head Eric Kuo (郭宣甫) said.
While money could be saved by using Chinese imports, the government should support locally made products, Kuo added.
A stable FIT would help local producers weather the price slump, which should subside in the near future, Kuo said.
Separately, Star Energy Corp (星能), a subcontractor for onshore deliverables, said at a public hearing for the wind energy industry that the FIT cut had begun to cause foreign developers to consider pulling out of Taiwan.
The government’s cut is too severe and does not reflect the costs of meeting Taiwan’s higher construction expenses due to climatic and geological conditions, in addition to local content requirements, foreign wind energy developers said.
While Taiwan has proposed to cut the FIT by 12.7 percent to NT$5.106 per unit over the next 20 years, France is offering rates equivalent to between NT$5.3 and NT$7.2 without local content requirements, Wpd Taiwan Energy Co Ltd (達德能源) said.
The ministry’s plan to cap the government’s purchase of offshore wind-generated energy to 3,600 operating hours per year would also deter companies from deploying the latest turbine technology, Wpd Taiwan said, adding that a cap of 72,000 operating hours per year should be set for the next two decades.
Orsted A/S said that the rate cut, implemented at such an early stage, would prevent Taiwan’s offshore wind projects from maturing and delivering clean energy at low prices once they enter the auction bidding phase.
A period of development helped by a stable FIT is required before offshore wind energy becomes cheaper, offshore wind energy developers said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS