News

US-China Trade War Indirectly Forced Bill Gates to Give up Nuclear Partnership with China

published: 2019-01-09 15:35
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. The second reason, according to Gates, was that the existing regulations in the United States had been too restrictive to build the new reactor's prototype. After its plan with CNNC is halted, Terra Power is not sure which country will be the next partner. In 2017, TerraPower LLC reached an agreement with China's CNNC. They planned to build an experimental nuclear reactor south of Beijing. Its lab planned to use depleted uranium as the fuel, in order to improve safety and reduce costs. The firm's CEO Chris Levesque pointed out that the company is regrouping and hope to find another partner.  (Article by TechNews; Photo credit: OnInnovation via Flickr CC BY 2.0) ...  more

JERA of Japan Obtains 30% Stake in Formosa I Wind Power

published: 2019-01-09 10:54
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...  more

Taiwan's Unit 2 of 2nd Nuclear Power Plant Was Reactivated

published: 2019-01-08 12:02
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. The TESI at the 3rd quarter in 2018 was 7...  more

Nikkei: China to Cut EV Subsidies by 30% in 2019

published: 2019-01-07 11:41
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...  more

China Plans to Shift Focus of Green Energy to Urban Areas

published: 2019-01-02 17:51
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 mark...  more