Penghu County has decided to make Hujing Island (虎井島) the nation’s first low-carbon island by promoting electric motorcycles and free battery-charging services, officials said yesterday.
The county has long been planning a low-carbon environment, with Hujing identified as the best place to use only electric motorcycles, as it is relatively small, said Yeh Kuo-ching (葉國清), director-general of the county’s Economic Affairs Bureau.
The short range of the vehicles and the dearth of recharging stations are two major problems in promoting electric motorcycles, officials said. However, these will not be a problem on Hujing.
Yeh said that a fully charged electric motorcycle can run for up to 50km.
“You could ride an electric scooter around the entire island more than 10 times,” Yeh said.
He did not give a timetable for the implementation of the plan.
Hujing Island is located 13km off the coast of the capital of Magong. With an area of just 2.133km², it is the seventh-largest island in the Penghu archipelago and is most famous for its basalt rock formations.
It has a permanent population of around 400, and around 75 percent of its 160 motorcycles are rental machines for tourists, borough chief Chen Da-chuan (陳大川) said.
Chen cited the results of a recent survey showing that almost 68 percent of the island’s residents would be willing to replace their gasoline-powered motorcycles with electric ones.
“We hope the government can provide more subsidies for purchasing new electric motorcycles,” Chen said.
After a casino construction proposal was defeated by Penghu’s residents in a referendum last month, Penghu County Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) turned to the possibility of promoting green energy to develop the county.
Former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said in July that the government would launch a “low-carbon community” by selecting an island to become a model for a low-carbon lifestyle, with at least 50 percent of the electricity supplied from renewable sources.
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