Taiwan expects to add more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity this year, the Bureau of Energy said yesterday.
Three new offshore wind farms are slated for completion or partial operation this year, which would contribute more than 800 megawatts, while a major solar project on Taiwan Sugar Co’s (Taisugar, 台糖) land due to begin operations this year would account for 181 megawatts.
The COVID-19 crisis caused significant delays in renewable energy construction last year, Bureau of Energy section head Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said.
“Solar as well as offshore wind farms were affected,” Chen said. “With offshore wind farms, it was far more difficult to mobilize the construction boats due to the crisis.”
German energy group Wpd’s 640MW Yunlin offshore wind farm is slated to be partially completed this year, with more than 400MW to come online, Chen said. Meanwhile, Formosa 2 OWF off the shore of Miaoli, codeveloped by a Japanese-Australian-Taiwanese consortium, is due to be wholly developed, bringing 376MW of renewable energy capacity. Lastly, Taipower Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) 110MW Changhua Wind Farm is scheduled to be completed this year. Currently, there is only one wind farm in operation, the 128 MW Formosa 1 off the coast of Miaoli.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is expected to announce rules for “phase three” of the offshore wind farm development in the first quarter. Phase three is expected to release 10GW worth of projects between 2026 and 2035.
A solar farm with installed capacity of 181MW built on the state-owned Taisugar’s land on the salt fields of Tainan’s Cigu District (七股) is to begin operations later this year, as is a solar project incorporating aquaculture. There will be more joint aquaculture-solar projects to come after the 40MW pilot project in Chiayi, the energy bureau said.
After a controversial Council of Agriculture decision in July last year to limit solar farms on agricultural land and curb joint solar-agriculture projects, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has encouraged solar-aquaculture projects and multi-land-use solar farms to try to meet the government’s quota for total solar capacity, which was missed last year. The original goal for total solar capacity was 6.5GW by the end of last year, however, only 5.82 GW was reached. The goal for the end of this year will be 8.75GW.
By 2025, the Ministry of Economic Affairs aims to generate 20 percent of Taiwan’s energy through renewable means, including 20GW of solar and more than 5.7GW from offshore wind farms.
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
GROWTH DRIVERS: The firm expects to benefit from generative AI applications for smartphones, higher average selling price of flagship chips and market share gains Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it estimates that revenue would expand at an annual rate of about 15 percent this year, as a proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications for premium smartphones are fueling demand for its flagship smartphone chips. It expects its smartphone chip revenue to outgrow the company’s average growth rate this year, benefiting primarily from the higher average selling price of its flagship smartphone chips and market share gains. The flagship chip revenue is to soar 50 percent year-on-year this year, MediaTek told an investor conference yesterday. As a whole, this year’s gross margin is