While strong winds may be a bane for tourism in Penghu during winter, they may yet prove to be an economic boon once the 45m tall wind power turbines and submarine power cables are all installed by 2016, which could generate as much as NT$13 billion (US$434 million) a year in electricity, academics estimate.
At present, giant wind turbines spin at two sites on the island — near the coasts of Baisha Township’s (白沙) Jhongtun Village (中屯) and Husi Township’s (湖西) Peiliao Village (北寮). Both wind power sites are operated by state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
Penghu’s power consumption is about 40,000 watts, Chien Shan Power Station deputy director Ou Chih-cheng (歐致誠) said, adding that the two power stations could already generate 10,000 watts, accounting for about one-fourth of the island’s energy demand.
Photo: Lee I-chia, Taipei Times
“During winter, wind speeds can sometimes get up to 20m/s [meters per second]. Since a wind velocity of 13m/s or 14m/s is enough for the generated power to reach full load, there are more than 150 days in a year in which the power generated by turbines reaches full load,” he said, adding that the full load rate was about 43 percent.
Ou said that the electricity generated from the two stations in 2010 added up to about 11 percent of the island’s total electricity supply. Not only do the turbines reduce the cost of power-generation, they also contribute to carbon reduction, which is in line with the government’s aim of turning Penghu into a world-class low-carbon island.
Yeh Kuo-ching (葉國清), director-general of the county’s Economic Affairs Bureau, said that once the construction of a submarine power cable between Taiwan proper and Penghu is completed in 2016, more wind turbines will be installed on the island and the surplus electricity generated will be sold back to Taiwan proper.
Aside from the spinning wind turbines operated by Taipower, state-of-the-art wind turbine technology experiments are also taking place on the island.
In 2007, National Penghu University of Science and Technology began a project commissioned and funded by the National Science Council to establish a 5,000m2 Wind Park at its campus for educational and research purposes.
The park is free for companies that want to test their wind turbines. It now hosts 47 small, experimental wind turbines installed by 20 companies worldwide. All the turbines have their own monitoring systems, which record their condition and efficacy and are transmitted by Internet for analysis and further improvement.
The university’s former president, Lin Huei-jeng (林輝政), now a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering and who led the program, said that based on data from 2008, “the average wind speed in Penghu was 9.75m/s and the wind gets stronger during winter months, increasing to about 16m/s, which is nearly the wind speed of a mild typhoon [17.2m/s to 32.6m/s].”
He said the strong winds on Penghu can put the companies’ newest designs to the test.
“Some companies were very confident about the [quality] of their turbines when they were installing them in the park, but after a few weeks, they found their blades broken, or their monitoring systems had malfunctioned, or [the blades] could not spin at all,” he said.
The school has received funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection to set up another world-standard wind park in the campus. If it acquires international certification in October, it will be the second site in Taiwan qualified to issue official test reports.
Lin said Penghu can look forward to an estimated NT$13 billion in energy output each year from its wind power stations and the submarine power cable in the future, as well as reducing its dependence on fossil fuel.
With a wind power load of between 41 percent and 49 percent, Penghu is ahead of Germany with 25 percent, Denmark’s 28 percent, the UK’s 29 percent and Taiwan proper’s 30 to 35 percent, the National Science Council said.
Despite the optimism over the future of wind power on the island, some of its residents have expressed doubts and their opposition to the projct.
According to a local newspaper, the Penghu Times, residents have complained that the continuous spinning of the turbines creates noise pollution, while others question whether the power cable and substations might produce electromagnetic radiation, posing a threat to public health.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
RSS