Environmental activists yesterday said the government was lying about the truth with regard to solar energy, saying that using solar energy actually helps reduce electricity costs rather than raise them.
The criticism came after the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced last month a controversial new pricing policy for solar power that calculates rates based on the completion date of an installed facility, rather than when the contract was signed.
The ministry defended its decision, saying the public would be subsidizing private solar energy suppliers a total of NT$432 billion (US$14.8 billion) over 20 years if the rates were calculated from the date when the contract was signed, which would in turn raise electricity costs.
Activists said the new pricing policy violated the law and would kill the development of renewable energy.
Citing 2009 statistics from Taiwan Power, Jay Fang (方儉), chairman of Green Consumer’s Foundation, told a press conference yesterday that the statistics showed that the power plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Linkou (林口) spent approximately NT$490 million generating about 2.33 million kilowatts of net power, with the cost of each kilowatt more than NT$210.
The cost of the Taichung Thermal Power Plant, on the other hand, was NT$59.25 per kilowatt, he said.
“The whole sale price for solar energy is NT$13, a little bit higher than prices for other forms of energy,” Fang said. “The electricity costs will only drop even if the government buys the solar energy at a wholesale price of NT$20.”
Fang said solar power is most useful when the Sun is strongest during the day, which is about four to five hours per day. He said that the demand for electricity is also strongest during these hours as well.
“The cost of generating power during these peak hours is also the highest because some of the machines are only used to meet the demand in this short period of time and are put aside when it is not peak hours. These underused facilities only add up to operational costs,” he said.
Fang said that solar energy could meet the demand for electricity during peak hours.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said Taiwan Power spent NT$214.3 billion a year purchasing fuel to generate power and the cost for this fuel would get more expensive with the rising global demand for energy.
“We have to import 99.7 percent of our energy from overseas, which has threatened national security,” Tien said. “Developing solar or wind power is our only hope to produce energy and sustain ourselves.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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