Stop idling, Taiwan
Having spent 18 months teaching English in Taichung, I’m concerned about Taiwan’s future if the air quality does not improve. Children who should be able to run and play for hours end up coughing because of the congestion in their lungs. I realize that industry is the cause of most of the pollution, but there is something the average person can do.
It’s a fact that vehicles, when idling, do not run efficiently and expel more exhaust than when driving. A vehicle that idles for more than 20 seconds wastes gas and pollutes. The solution is simple: Many of Taiwan’s traffic lights show the time left until traffic will move. If a vehicle arrives at a stop signal with more than 20 seconds showing on the display, turn your car or scooter engine off. When the display hits 10 seconds, turn it back on. When you are picking up your children from school, turn the engine off. When you are stopping to buy a drink, turn the engine off. In fact, turn it off any time you will be stopped longer than 10 seconds.
It is estimated that the average vehicle using this method could save NT$10,000 in fuel per year and alleviate unnecessary wear and tear on engines. Modern vehicles do not need to idle. Here is a Web site that gives some great information: www.makealeap.org/idling_myth.
Since moving to Taiwan, I have developed asthma and serious lung problems. Sadly, I will have to leave because I can’t breathe. I have loved living here. The people are amazing, the country is so beautiful and the culture is so wonderfully different.
Please, for the sake of the nation’s children, do your part to reduce harmful carbon emissions. I have written to the Ministry of Environment [sic] with this suggestion. If you agree, please e-mail them as well.
JOANNE ROSEN
Taichung
Numbers don’t add up
In his article (“Embracing a non-nuclear future,” April 4, page 8) former Environmental Protection Agency minister Winston Dang (陳重信) said that if renewable energy output in Taiwan could be raised to 25 percent of total electricity production, there would be no reason why a future administration headed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential hopeful Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) could not phase out nuclear energy. That would mean raising the output of renewables from 9 terawatt (TW) hours to 58TW hours from the annual total for electricity production of 229.7TW hours. Let us consider how that scale of output could be achieved by means of four sources of energy: combined-cycle gas turbines, onshore wind farms, offshore wind farms and solar photovoltaic.
The 58TW hours target could be achieved by 14 top-class combined-cycle, multi-shaft gas turbines (848 megawatts [MW] each operating at 58 percent efficiency) for a capital cost very similar to the Longmen nuclear power plant (NT$280 billion [US$9.56 billion]) covering approximately 7km2.
In reference to an onshore wind farm facility, and extrapolating from data pertaining to the Enercon E-126 turbine with a power rating of 7MW, Dang’s target of 58TW hours annually would require 2,478 such mega-turbines, operating at 30 percent efficiency on 398km2 of land at a capital cost just shy of NT$57 billion. While the capital cost is much cheaper than the gas option, such a wind farm would require 40 percent more land than Taipei City.
To extrapolate from the published figures for the UK’s largest offshore wind farm, the London Array (NT$91 billion; 1,000MW power rating; 195km2), such a wind farm in Taiwan, assuming it would operate at 30 percent efficiency, could generate 58 TW hours annually only if its power rating was increased to 19,400MW — which would mean so many turbines as to consume 3,770km2 at a capital cost of NT$1.8 trillion. That’s the size of 14 Taipei Cities — at sea!
Taking our bearings from the Lhuju solar plant, 58TW hours a year could only be generated by so many such plants that they would have a combined power rating of 6,600MW, cover an area of 7,250km2 (or 26.5 Taipei Cities) and cost almost NT$9 trillion. Even if a Tsai administration decided to make solar cell purchases compulsory for every rooftop in all of Taiwan’s cities, that would only take up at most 3,422km2 (the real figure is probably a third of this), and only 27.3TW hours a year.
In his article, Dang went so far as to claim that not only would 25 percent of total electricity production be an appropriate target for renewable investment to aim for, but that Taiwanese should even be aiming for 100 percent by 2050. With numbers this bad, who could even trust Dang with the till at a local 7-Eleven?
MICHAEL FAGAN
Tainan
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
RSS