A five-year, NT$8.09 billion (US$273.6 million) project to turn Penghu into a world-class low-carbon island was formally launched on Tuesday.
“The project represents a major milestone in the development of Taiwan and Penghu,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said at the launch ceremony.
The initiative, centered around the installation of 96 megawatt wind power generators, is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50 percent in 2015 from 2005 levels, to 2.1 tonnes per person per year from 5.4 tonnes, Shih said.
Photo: CNA
Renewable energy will account for 56 percent of the county’s total energy demand by 2015, he said, and when the wind turbines produce excess electricity, it will be transmitted and sold to Taiwan proper via an underwater cable.
A key feature of the plan is to invite the Penghu County -Government and local residents to become stakeholders in the project.
They are expected to acquire a 55 percent share of the company that will operate the wind farm, with the rest open to outside investors.
Enercon GmbH from Germany, Vestas Wind Systems A/S from Denmark and Taiwan Cogeneration Corp have all expressed interest, the county government said.
As part of the plan, Penghu’s only thermal power plant, the Jianshan Power Plant, will be closed in 2015 and turned into a transformer station.
Penghu County Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) said the strong northeast monsoon has been a curse on the county’s efforts to develop tourism, but it will now be a godsend.
During the summer, when winds are mild, the island county will rely on electricity transmitted from Taiwan proper via a 58.8km underwater cable connecting Kouhu (口湖) in Yunlin County on Taiwan’s western coast and Jianshan (尖山) in Penghu.
However, in the winter when winds are powerful, Penghu will be able to sell excess electricity to Taiwan, Wang said.
The plan also incorporates other energy-efficient equipment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will spend NT$400 million this year to help install solar panels at bus stops and schools, smart meters for 2,106 households and provide 4,000 LED street lamps, as well as purchase 6,000 electric motorcycles. It will also promote B2 biodiesel fuel around the county.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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