The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday called on the private sector to find solutions to energy storage problems as part of the government’s initiative to develop renewable energy.
Speaking at a news conference announcing the Energy Taiwan forum, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said that one way companies can participate in the adoption of renewable energy is by providing operating reserve to the national grid.
As Taiwan becomes increasingly reliant on renewable energy, energy storage solutions are needed to ensure a stable power supply. State-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) keeps an operating reserve of 10 percent, mostly by keeping its fossil-fuel power plants on standby.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
However, there is mounting interest in decentralized smart energy storage solutions working as “virtual power plants” that aggregate and distribute power as supply and demand fluctuate.
“Taipower would like to buy more operating reserve as a service, and less equipment to ensure operating reserve,” Tseng said.
“It is no longer in doubt that renewable energy is the way forward for Taiwan, but the government cannot do it alone,” he said. “We are using market mechanisms to increase the resilience of our grid.”
The government is preparing to start requiring more than 500 of the nation’s large energy users to increase their renewable energy usage starting in January next year.
“Next year is going to be the ‘year zero’ of energy storage in Taiwan,” United Renewable Energy Co (聯合再生能源) chief executive officer Pan Wen-whe (潘文輝) said.
One of the ways companies can comply with the requirement is by providing energy storage.
Other ways to comply with the requirement is to install renewable energy generation facilities on site, buying renewable energy certificates through the Taiwan Renewable Energy Certificate (T-REC) program or paying a renewable energy fee in lieu of participation.
“As T-RECs are going to be in very short supply, the best way to meet the requirements for many companies is a combination of rooftop photovoltaics and energy storage,” Pan said.
The forum runs from today through Friday at the Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1.
It is to include the Global Renewable Energy Supply Chain Summit, the Photovoltaic Executive Summit, and the Smart Energy Storage and Systems Integration Forum.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by