The first-phase construction of Gigafactory 3 of Tesla broke ground in Shanghai Linggang Industrial Area on Jan. 7. ...  more

Taiwan-based electric scooter (e-scooter) startup Gogoro made great advances in 2018, and its successes have spurred other domestic vehicle manufacturers to earnestly compete in the e-scooter market. ...  more

Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and a founder of nuclear venture TerraPower, was forced to abandon an agreement with the China state-run China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and is seeking new partners for its early-stage trials because of the two reasons below. First, the US Department of Energy announced new restrictions on nuclear deals with China in October 2018 for the strategic importance of the US's nuclear technology. ...  more

Taiwan’s government has further tightened its import regulations to prevent China-made PV cells and modules from entering the country. On 2 January, the Bureau of Foreign Trade, which is under Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, announced that solar imports including PV cells and modules are barred from entering Taiwan if they are without the official certificate of origin and the approval issued by the relevant authority in the exporting country. ...  more

In order to expand deployment in overseas offshore wind power markets and obtain wind-field management experience, JERA of Japan announced recently that it has gained 32.5% stake in Formosa I Wind Power Co., Ltd. in Taiwan and 24.95% in Gungleet Sands wind field of the UK. ...  more

On December 27, 2018, the Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development (RCTED) in National Central University (NCU) announced the latest Taiwan Energy Security Indicator (TESI) figure. ...  more

South Korea-based SK Innovation expects a great outlook for electric vehicles and plans to massively increase production of EV batteries by a factor of 10 before 2022, to 55 GWh. ...  more

Following failure of the four offshore wind power developers, namely Ørsted, CIP, Hailung, and China Steel, to clear the screening of Changhua County government by the end of 2018 and secure NT$5.8 kWh wholesale rate for 2018, Shen Jong-chin, economics minister, reiterated on Jan. 3 the government's determination to push offshore wind power, pledging to help the developers solve their problems. ...  more

The Chinese government is reported to implement a 30% reduction in the subsidies for the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV) in 2019. Such a move is expected to significantly lower the domestic demand and cause some difficulties for would-be buyers. ...  more

Faced with the problem of renewable-energy power curtailment, the Chinese government plans to shift the focus of no-subsidy PV power projects to populous cities in eastern China and intends to improve local power transaction markets and introduce maneuvering technology for peak-time power consumption. ...  more