The suburban township of Sansia (三峽) in Taipei County has the nation’s smartest bus stop — it is solar-powered and tells the arrival time of your next bus, thanks to land developer Farglory Group (遠雄企業團).
At a cost of NT$2 million (US$62,100), the state-of-the-art bus stop, which features a thin-film solar panel on the roof, represents efforts by Farglory to join forces with the local government to build a green city with low carbon emissions, Farglory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) told a launch ceremony on Wednesday.
With 2.5 hours of sunlight each day, the bus stop will save 1,660 kilowatt hours of electricity and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1,059kg each year — the equivalent of 212 trees, he said.
The company has vowed to donate other bus stops topped with thin-film solar panels in Linkou (林口) and Shulin (樹林) , a total contribution of NT$6 million, he said.
The amount doesn’t include maintenance fees over the next three years before the county government takes them over.
Taipei County has installed 11 solar-powered bus stops since May last year, not including the three advanced stops donated by Farglory.
However, none of the stops have batteries and they are powered by the county’s power grid after dark.
Thin-film solar panels feature more acute sensitivity to light than traditional panels and are thus capable of generating power even on a cloudy day, the company said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last