The Pingtung County Government yesterday started using wind-powered monitors to collect data on the Hengchun Peninsula ahead of a project to build wind turbines there as an alternative source of energy for the county.
The flat Hengchun Peninsula, at the southern end of the steep Central Range, is famous for its strong winds between October and April. Winds can whip through at speeds up to 30m/s, stronger than a typhoon.
The winds -- which are known to have flipped over automobiles, brought down electricity poles and destroyed crops -- may soon be used as a source of electricity for Pintung County.
Yesterday, Pingtung County Commissioner Su Chia-chuan (
The company, established in 1952, has been planning to engage in power generation projects abroad since 1997, when the Japanese Cabinet ordered it privatize within five years.
EPDC plans to build 10 to 12 1500-kilowatt wind-power turbines for commercial use in Pingtung County in conjunction with the Taiwan Transportation Machinery Corp.
The Japanese company made the decision to build the turbines based on field data on the Heng-chun Peninsula previously collected by a 10m-high anemometer operated by the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower,
The data collected last year showed that the average wind speed is 6m/s, higher than the threshold 4m/s needed to operate the wind-powered turbines.
EPDC has also installed two wind monitors at the top of two two towers, 20m and 30m, respectively, to collect further data.
Representatives of the company said yesterday that data collected over the next year would be an essential reference for its wind-power project in Pingtung County.
The company has spent NT$6 million building wind monitors in Taiwan. If the project moves forward, each 1500-kilowatt wind turbine will cost approximately Japnese Yen 120 million.
Commissioner Su, however, hoped that the monitoring period could be shortened so that the turbines could be built earlier.
"I hope that the wind-power turbines will become a well-known landmark of Checheng township," Su said.
Environmental officials for the Pintung County Government said that electricity generated by the turbines would be purchased by Taipower based on a plan by the Energy Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"Meanwhile, Taipower's pilot project consisting of four small wind-powered turbines on the Hengchun Peninsula will be expanded here," Kao Jen-ho (
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