The Taipei City Public Library opened its fourth unmanned intelligent library yesterday, but this one has been built not just to be smart, but also to be as “green” as the park in which it stands.
The Solar Library and Energy-Optimized House (called Solar LEO House), situated in Youth Park in Taipei, has been constructed based on environmental protection principles, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said at the inauguration ceremony.
“It will not just be an intelligent library; it will also serve to promote green energy and energy saving ideas,” Hau said.
Hau expressed his gratitude to Cheng Fu-tien (鄭福田, 1948-2008), the late founder of solar power pioneer Motech Industries. Cheng initiated the idea of building the energy-efficient library in Wanhua District (萬華), where he grew up, in an effort to give back to society.
The Solar Library is a two-story box-like house with a simple, minimalist, modern appearance. The unmanned library on the first floor is equipped with a radio frequency identification (RFID) system. With an RFID city public library card or EasyCard, visitors can enter and exit the library and borrow books by entering the details on a computer.
“It’s the first time we have built an unmanned library in a park,” National Central Library Director-General Tseng Shu-hsien (曾淑賢) said.
The City Public Library has previously built unmanned libraries in a shopping mall and Ximending commercial disrrict. To date, they have run smoothly without much vandalism and theft, Tseng said.
The second floor of the new library serves as an exhibition center with educational displays about the building’s structure and energy-saving features. It will also host forums and activities to promote energy-saving education, according to the HAND Initiative, a non-profit organization commissioned to run the exhibition hall.
The Solar LEO House was designed and constructed by Chang Ching-hwa (張清華) and Kuo Ying-chao (郭英釗), the architects who built Taiwan’s first “green” library in Beitou (北投), based on energy-saving ideas introduced to Taiwan by Hu Shiang-lin (胡湘玲), founder of the HAND Initiative.
According to the initiative, the library’s design emphasizes the use of natural insulation materials to keep its interior at 25oC in summer, without using air conditioners.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS