Computing power, which relies on a sufficient electricity supply, is crucial when assessing a nation’s strength, Pegatron Corp (和碩) chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) said at an artificial intelligence (AI) forum in Taipei on Tuesday.
On the sidelines of the forum discussing how Taiwan can boost its information and communications technology industry in the AI era, Tung said that computing power defines how developed a country is.
However, using AI and manufacturing AI chips requires electricity, he said, adding that the stability, quality and cost of the power supply could affect the development of a country’s economy.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
At the forum, Tung again raised the issue of energy, saying that every country has a unique industrial structure, “and among the advanced countries, [few] have about the same or higher electricity consumption per capita than Taiwan, with the United States being one” of them.
“The per capita power consumption in Japan and European countries such as Germany, which rely more on the service sector, is about half of Taiwan’s,” he said.
The nation consumed 276.52 terawatt-hours of power last year, Energy Administration data showed.
That was about 11,807 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per capita, given a population of 23.42 million.
In 2022, the US consumed 12,702kWh per capita, while Japan logged 7,799kWh and Germany 6,984kWh, German online data platform Statista showed.
The main reason for Taiwan’s high power consumption is the industrial sector, which in 2022, “accounted for about 56 percent of Taiwan’s consumption,” Tung said.
Residential consumption that year was only about 18 percent, he added.
The levels were about the same last year, with the industrial sector accounting for 55.3 percent, residential 18.6 percent and the service sector 17.5 percent, Energy Administration data showed.
“If the annual power consumption increased 2 to 2.5 percent, in three or four years it would be about 300 terawatt-hours. If there is a NT$1 [US$0.03] difference in the cost of generating 1kWh, the total difference would be NT$300 billion,” Tung said.
“NT$300 billion could be invested in many areas, including research, education and healthcare,” he added.
He did not elaborate on what could cause the cost to rise in power generation, but he was likely referring to the increasing cost associated with stopping the use of nuclear power.
Tung has repeatedly voiced his support for nuclear power.
Earlier this month, he said that Taiwan’s nuclear plants have been working well for four decades and have lowered the cost of generating power.
He also said that it would be a pity for a well-functioning facility that would cost hundreds of billions of New Taiwan dollars to build today to stop operating.
The two reactors at Taiwan’s only operating nuclear plant — Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant — are scheduled to stop operating later this month and in May next year after 40 years in service.
Tung’s outspokenness about his support for nuclear power has stirred a lot of debate because he has recently been appointed by President William Lai (賴清德) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as deputy convener of a newly established National Climate Change Strategy Committee.
The DPP has a long-standing “nuclear-free homeland” stance on energy.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS