Bangkok--29 May--Taiwan Trade Center
Taiwan, aiming to catch the green technology wave, plans to invest more than US$1 billion to support R&D and and create national standards for new energy-saving industries.
Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, or Cabinet, on April 30 passed a proposal to invest at least NT$20 billion (US$588 million) in R&D for green-energy technology and NT$25 billion in installation of environmentally friendly equipment including light-emitting diodes and solar panels, according to the Executive Yuan.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), after nearly two years of work with the LED industry, has announced proposed standards for LED lighting and the first national standard for LED street lighting.
The Cabinet aims to boost revenue from Taiwan’s green-energy industry to NT$1.5 trillion (US$34 billion) by 2015, accounting for 6.6% of the total revenue of Taiwan`s manufacturing industry and creating 110,000 jobs in the meantime, the government body said on its website. Taiwan’s manufacturing revenue last year reached NT$160.3 billion.
The NT$20 billion investment is designed to draw an estimated NT$200 billion investment from the private sector, Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs C.M. Yiin said.
The global market for LEDs, worth about US$5 billion, is likely to more than double in size by 2012 as nations and consumers use the energy-saving lights to cut expenses and help reduce carbon emissions. LEDs are likely to capture a larger portion of the market for nearly every type of lighting such as displays in electronic devices, road signage, traffic lights, large public information screens and video displays.
LEDs are poised to take a larger portion of the multi-billiondollar lighting market away from light bulbs and tubes as the new technology becomes more mature and manufacturing costs fall. LEDs are also less polluting than fluorescent lights, which contain mercury.
Europe, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea have worked to set standards for the LED industry because such regulations will help expand the market at the same time as they benefit LED manufacturers. In view of this, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs on January 22 announced its Light-Emitting Diode Optical Components and Electrical Testing Methods as four national standards.
Taiwan’s LED makers include Arima Optoelectronics Corp., Bright LED Electronics Corp., Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronic Co., Formosa Epitaxy, Genesis Photonics Inc., Harvatek, I-Chiun Precision, Ligitek, Opto Tech and Unity Opto Technology Co.
To boost Taiwan's LED standards and technology and accelerate development of Taiwan’s LED industry in the international market, Taiwan has proposed 17 standards for such areas as high efficiency (greater than 100Lm/W) and long life (more than 20,000 hours).
In the future, the MOEA aims to use the complete national standards as a bargaining chip with China to encourage common LED industry standards and a cross-authentication mechanism to form a greater China industry value chain, the Ministry said. The plan would also create new opportunities in the international market for LED lighting, the MOEA said.
Taiwan’s solar cell makers include Motech Industrial Inc., Gintech Energy Corp., E-Ton Solar Tech, Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. Sinonar Corp. and Green Energy Technology. Motech, Gintech and E-Ton are among the world’s ten largest solar cell makers by revenues.
Export markets for Taiwan’s green energy products, Yiin said, include mainland China's planned eco-friendly cities.
Taiwan aims to achieve several goals including Asia's first large-scale solar-power plant and the installation of 700,000 LED traffic lights islandwide by 2011.
Yiin said Taiwan will target solar energy and LED industries in the first phase of the project and hydrogen energy, fuel cells, wind power, biofuel and electric vehicles in the second phase.