President Ma touts Taiwan’s green energy industry

Source： Taiwan Today
By Kwangyin Liu

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said Feb. 23 that Taiwan’s green energy industry will continue to gain ground in the global arena on the back of its highly competitive solar cell and light-emitting diode manufacturing sectors.

The president made the remarks while meeting with Donald Lessard, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

In accordance with the Dawning Green Energy Industry Program ratified in 2009, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will continue helping manufacturers develop key green energy technologies, in particular solar cell and LED lighting, Ma said.

“In line with the growing global trend of cutting down on carbon emissions, Taiwan could take advantage of its lead in manufacturing to step up its development of green energy-related technologies.”

The domestic solar cell sector’s total production in 2011 reached 3 gigawatts, ahead of Japan’s 2.5 GW, to rank second in the world, while the LED lighting industry’s total production ranked first in volume worldwide with NT$184.6 billion (US$6.2 billion), the president noted.

“As 99 percent of the energy Taiwan consumes relies on imports, it is essential that we focus our efforts in developing greener sources of energy.”

In related news, MOEA has launched several initiatives aimed at helping the local clean energy sector, including a program that will see photovoltaic panels installed on 100,000 rooftops across the nation and 1,000 wind turbines set up along Taiwan’s west coast.

According to MOEA forecasts, the two projects will be capable of generating 7.3 megawatts of electricity per year by 2030.

Taiwan green energy industry’s total production hit NT$410 billion in 2011, marking a roughly 1.9-fold increase over the figure two years earlier, according to the MOEA.