Power generated from solar and wind made up nearly one-third of the nation’s energy mix at noon yesterday, setting a record, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said.
Electricity generated from solar and wind totaled 7 gigawatts, accounting for 31.53 percent of the power generated at the time, surpassing the 31.21 percent recorded on Jan. 25 and setting an all-time high, the state-owned utility said.
Taipower credited fair weather conditions for the milestone.
Photo courtesy of Tainan Bureau of Transportation via CNA
Taiwan also hit a separate milestone in green energy transition, after solar and wind sources had generated more than 15 percent of the nation’s electricity for seven days in a row as of Monday, Taipower said.
The government has set the goal of reducing its dependence on “gray” electricity and boosting green power generation to 15 percent of the nation’s energy mix by 2025, down from its original goal of 20 percent.
In December last year, the nation generated more electricity from solar and wind power than coal for the first time, with gas power taking the lead, Taipower data showed.
The increase in green energy generation and the decline in coal power indicate that green energy is replacing “gray” electricity in the nation, Taipower said.
Gas remains the nation’s largest power source, generating about 33 percent of its energy on Monday noon, Taipower data showed.
The growth in renewable power generation could also be linked to more solar panels and wind turbines being installed in Taiwan, the utility said.
Last year, solar panels with a combined capacity of 2.5 gigawatts were installed on rooftops and fish ponds, Taipower said.
Offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of more than 1 gigawatt were also erected, the company added.
Last year, 20.08 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated by solar and wind, amounting to about 8 percent to all power generated, Taipower said.
With new solar and wind power plants coming online, the Ministry of Economic Affairs expects the renewable sources to produce an additional 2 gigawatts of electricity this year, which would be equal to the power generated by two nuclear reactors.
Household energy users and businesses have voiced concerns about possible power shortages as the nation changes its power mix.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), who is acting chairman of Taipower, said he does not expect the retirement of a nuclear power plant to cause a shortage in the power supply, as increases in renewable energy would offset the impact.
Tseng made the remarks during a Femora TV interview on Sunday in response to concerns about the planned retirement this month of a reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里).
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS