The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said if all streetlights nationwide were replaced with LED lights, an estimated 15.4 trillion units of electricity could be saved annually.
Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day forum on achieving a sustainable and low-carbon environment.
He said up to NT$60 billion [US$2 billion] in fuel costs for generating electricity could be saved if all streetlights used LED lights.
In a press released later in the day, the EPA said there were about 2.14 million traditional mercury streetlights and high-pressure sodium lamps in the nation.
Calculating an energy saving rate of 60 percent after switching to high efficiency lighting, about 15.4 trillion units of electricity — approximately the amount of electricity generated by a power plant, could be saved each year, the administration said, adding that it could also save up to NT$3 billion in fuel costs each year, amounting to NT$60 billion over the 20-year life span of the lamps.
However, the EPA said its initial estimated cost for switching over all streetlights to high-efficiency lamps was between NT$50 billion and NT$90 billion and it was negotiating with agencies and private corporations for contributions.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy, the Executive Yuan has approved the use of LED streetlights, and will invest NT$2.8 billion over three years, starting from this year, to replace 3.26 billion mercury streetlamps with lamps of 60 percent electricity saving rate.
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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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching