The Bureau of Energy yesterday initiated an LED light bulbs program aimed at helping low-income households and social welfare organizations replace traditional light bulbs to save a collective NT$130 million (US$4.48 million) a year in electricity fees.
The bureau said the new program, which will begin on Feb. 2, is part of the government’s efforts to promote more efficient energy consumption and would also help improve Taiwanese LED firms’ competitiveness in the global market.
Under the program, the government will distribute 500,000 LED light bulbs, each of which will be less than 10 watts, to 220,000 low-income households and 1,429 social welfare organizations next year, Kao Shu-fang (高淑芬), a senior specialist at the energy bureau, told reporters at a press briefing.
Social welfare organizations that have registered with the Ministry of the Interior will each receive 24 LED bulbs from the government ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Feb. 10 next year, while low-income households will receive two LED bulbs each from local township offices between April 1 and April 30.
By using LED light bulbs, low-income households could save about NT$520 in electricity fees a year, while social welfare organizations could see their bills cut by NT$6,200 per year, Kao said, citing bureau estimates.
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
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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