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Updated Wednesday, February 3, 2010 4:03 pm TWN, By Chao Hsiao-hui and Bear Lee, CNA Green energy production value to hit NT$1.15 trillion by 2015Speaking at a Taipei seminar on the era of low carbon emissions, Wang Yun-ming, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said that "green investment" now dominates the economic development agendas of many countries. He cited statistics compiled by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation as saying that the U.S. government has set aside US$67.7 billion in its economic stimulus measures for developing clean and green energy, while the European Union has committed 105 billion euros by 2013, South Korea has earmarked 50 trillion won over the next four years, and Japan has decided to make available 100 trillion yen by 2015. Taiwan for its part will focus on solar power, LED lighting, wind power, bio-energy, fuel cells, energy information communication technology and electric vehicles. He said the production value of the local green energy sector will have increased from NT$160 billion last year to NT$1.15 trillion by 2015, attracting private investment worth NT$200 billion and creating 110, 000 jobs. By that time, Wang went on, with its backbone industries having shifted to areas featuring low carbon emissions and high added value, Taiwan will be one of the leading countries in terms of new energy technology development and production. Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments February 4, 2010 afripilgrim@ Reply This is good news. Taiwan is moving in the right direction. Not only are solar and wind energy sustainable and non polluting, this will also encourage development of new technology, production of equipment that can gain income from selling it to other countries. February 6, 2010 elumpen@ Unfortunately not true, afripilgrim. Because Taiwanese companies (and the government) have no real interest in deploying the technology locally, they have a very shallow understanding of it and typically just take a "me too" approach to production. They are being outpaced, and outinnovated (is that a word?) by the Americans, Japanese and German companies who genuinely believe in what they are doing and understand they technology they're working with. That means they can make stuff better and cheaper than Taiwan; more importantly, they will secure big contracts because of their knowhow and technical backup. Nobody in their right mind would buy a million-dollar solar installation from a Taiwanese company who can't offer applications support and (most likely) won't be around in 10 years' time when stuff starts to fail. March 27, 2010 khhenviros@ I'm encouraged by the media pick up of this subject recently but I'm yet to see some movement. I read this article now, but it comes only 3 weeks before the South China Post has reported InfraVest (the German wind energy company positioned to be the main builder of wind energy in Taiwan) has begun lay offs and is scaling back - not up - its investment in Taiwan stating its inability to turn profit based on energy price they've been quoted by TaiPower. If this is true, how can any claim be made that Taiwan's renewable energies will grow so dramatically if foreign investment is leaving the island in this sector? Domestically funded it may grow, but not substantially. If TaiPower was really serious about this, then perhaps they might try offering internationally competitive rates and stop building new coal fired power plants like the one at Talin in Kaohsiung (inside city limits I might add...cough cough). |
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