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Aug 5
China launches 15th Five-Year 'leader' awards on low-carbon credentials

China's State Council has launched a new recommendation program for "leader" companies in energy efficiency and carbon efficiency, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issuing the notice on August 4, 2026. The program is designed to push heavy industry to cut energy use and emissions, as low-carbon certification increasingly becomes a key credential for future market competition.

The Trump administration is preparing to impose a 15% tariff and minimum import prices on polysilicon and selected derivative products, placing an upstream material shared by solar panels and semiconductor chips at the center of efforts to reduce US exposure to Chinese supply.

Taiwan's high-tech industry is facing an increasingly urgent need for renewable electricity, yet progress on major offshore wind projects has slowed significantly.
Elon Musk is accelerating plans to establish a fully integrated US solar manufacturing ecosystem through Tesla and SpaceX, with a combined long-term capacity target of 200 GW. His strategy now extends from solar cells and modules into crystal growth and wafer production, while industry reports suggest the effort could eventually reach upstream polysilicon manufacturing.
China's automakers are still betting on a strategy of in-house batteries to complement their complete vehicle lineups, but the push remains hard to execute as profit margins slide and the supply chain stays structurally unbalanced. The challenge comes as upstream miners, refiners, and lithium battery makers capture most of the gains while carmakers face intensifying competition.
The offshore wind industry has faced pressure from the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19, both of which pushed up construction costs and slowed development in Taiwan. Some developers have exited the market, raising concerns among green-power-hungry industries that renewable projects could be delayed and customer net-zero timelines may slip.
Taiwan Cement Corp. (TCC) formally launched its Europe listing plan, Project Arcadia, on July 27 after holding a video meeting with its first group of international investment banks and advisers. The company said the move marked a major step in its effort to build a capital markets presence in Europe.
Inner Mongolia HyperStrong Technology is a major production subsidiary established by Beijing HyperStrong Technology in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Its development offers a useful case study as competition intensifies among China's battery energy storage system integrators.
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) on the 23rd released the 15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development, setting out renewable energy targets for 2030 and, for the first time, requiring new data centers to be planned together with renewable power projects to raise the share of green electricity use.
As generative AI adoption accelerates, AI data centers are becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand worldwide. Unlike conventional data centers, however, AI facilities exhibit highly variable power consumption driven by intensive GPU workloads, creating new challenges for grid operators while raising the bar for the reliability of on-site power systems.
South Korea has finalized plans to bring climate-related information under statutory disclosure requirements beginning in 2028, advancing the timetable and widening the scope compared with a draft released in February 2026.
South Korea's EcoPro BM said it aims to begin mass production of sulfide-based solid electrolytes, a core material for all-solid-state batteries, as early as 2027, laying out a roadmap to supply the full slate of materials the next-generation cells will require. The plan was disclosed at a corporate briefing in Yeouido, Seoul, on July 16 and formalized in a roadmap announcement on July 19.