Australia’s eastern state of Queensland yesterday unveiled plans to build the world’s largest pumped hydroelectric energy storage scheme in a major shift toward renewables for the fossil fuel-rich region.
The project, promised to be delivered by 2035, would be able to store 5 gigawatts of renewable energy — more than double Australia’s largest pumped hydro scheme, Snowy 2.0.
GLOBAL LEAD
“This is world-leading,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. “We know that Queenslanders understand climate change. Today, the government understands that we need to take action.”
Queensland has long been one of Australia’s fossil fuel heartlands, with mining pouring nearly A$40 billion (US$25.5 billion) into the state’s economy in 2019-2020 — the largest contributor by far.
The pumped hydro scheme sits at the center of a new A$62 billion “energy and jobs plan,” which will also see Queensland legislate a target to generate 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2035.
Pumped hydro technology allows for the long-term storage of renewable energy — such as power generated by solar and wind — which is a key challenge for the transition to net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
‘GIANT BATTERY’
“We will use cheap solar electricity during the day to pump water up the mountain to store it,” Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said. “Then at night we can release the water to generate electricity. It’s like a giant battery.”
While mining continues to dominate Queensland’s economy, voters in the state’s big cities have become increasingly concerned about climate change — many backing Green and climate-aware candidates in May elections.
A recent poll conducted by YouGov in resource-rich northern Queensland found 75 percent of those surveyed under 35 want the government to invest in renewables over coal or gas.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts