The Taipei City Government yesterday held a launch ceremony for a photovoltaic power plant named Taipei Energy Hill, which is capable of generating 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
The power plant in the Fudekeng Environmental Restoration Park in the city’s Muzha (木柵) area, is built on the site of of a former landfill and consists of 8,000 solar panels covering about 3 hectares.
The electricity generated by the plant would help the city reduce yearly carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 tonnes, which is three times the amount that Daan Forest Park can absorb in a year, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The department in July last year signed a contract with Taipei-based Tatung Co (大同), a leader in the nation’s photovoltaic industry, to build the power plant.
Touting the facility as a model for “green” electricity generation, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said at the ceremony that the power plant has generated 153,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity since it went online last month, which translates into an about 80-tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
The city provided the land on which the power plant was built and Tatung provided the photovoltaic panels, Ko said.
The electricity generated by the plant would be sold to state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), he said.
According to the contract, Tatung is to pay the city government 10 percent of the revenue it makes from selling electricity, which costs about NT$5 per kilowatt-hour, which is like “rent” paid by the firm, the mayor said.
To boost solar energy generation, the city government has contracted out two projects to Tatung to install solar panels on the roofs of central and city government agencies, Ko said.
In other news, Ko yesterday fielded media questions about illegally built mezzanines in Neihu District (內湖).
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday reported that the city government has made an exception for the district to legalize the mezzanines by allowing property owners to pay a fee for the additional floor space.
Ko took issue with the word “legalize,” saying the city government would ensure that owners pay fees that apply to extra floor space created by mezzanines, adding that structures that do not conform to regulations would be torn down.
If property owners do not contact the city government by July 1, the structures would be torn down, he said.
Taipei Construction Management Office spokesman Horng Der-haur (洪德豪) said people started building mezzanines in Neihu in the early 2000s after the former industrial zone was designated as a science park, which allowed offices and stores to be established.
As a result, people who own factories with raised ceilings built mezzanines into their houses and rented them out, he said.
There are 147 units in 52 buildings in Neihu with illegal mezzanines, he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary