Proposed regulations requiring the installation of fluorescent lighting could reduce Taipei’s electricity usage by 5 percent if adopted, the Taipei City Government Department of Environmental Protection said yesterday.
The claim was made at the city’s annual electricity lottery which awards a series of prizes of up to NT$1 million (US$32,292) to city residents who have cut their electricity use by at least 3 percent year-on-year.
Department official Chiu Kuo-shu (邱國書) said the new regulations proposed to the city council would require apartment complexes to switch to fluorescent lighting in public spaces and to turn off decorative outdoor lighting after midnight. A further set of regulations would limit the brightness of lighting used in outdoor areas.
The proposed regulations build on previous efforts by the city to encourage voluntary use of fluorescent lighting, which cuts electricity usage by up to 90 percent, he said.
As limits on industrial usage of electricity within Taipei are slack, lighting consumes more than 30 percent of the city’s electricity, he added.
In addition to lotteries and prizes for citizens and businesses that cut electricity usage, the city is in the process of switching 70,000 street lights to fluorescent lighting by the end of the year, he said.
As a result of the measures, the city’s electricity usage has fallen 6.2 percent since 2008, despite a gradual increase in population, Chiu said, adding that the department expects the proposed regulations to cut electricity usage by a further 5 percent.
The new regulations would have to be approved by the city council before they can be implemented, he said.
“The reduction in electricity usage is impressive given the gradual increase in the city’s population,” he said, attributing the cuts to increased usage of fluorescent lighting which can cut electricity by 90 percent compared with traditional bulbs.
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