A project initiated by the Taipei City Government to install solar panels on the rooftops of public buildings has yielded less-than-satisfactory results, with 10 of the 77 facilities either abandoned or defunct, government data showed.
The project, launched in 2003, has cost the municipal government nearly NT$500 million (US$15.74 million). Another budget of NT$30 million has been proposed to install solar panels on an affordable housing complex this year.
However, nine out of the 77 solar facilities had long been scrapped, while a “photovoltaic energy power generating system” at Shidong Market in Shilin District (士林) is inoperational and has been left unattended for more than a month.
According to data published by the city government on revenue currently generated by the facilities, it would take the city about 77 years to offset the cost that went into their construction.
For example, vendors at Shidong market together spend between NT$800,000 and NT$1 million per month for electricity consumption, which is equivalent to each business paying about NT$2,000 in electricity bills.
However, government data showed that the solar power generator had over the past six years generated just 330,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, which is far less than what the market consumes every month and can only save each vendor NT$66 on average.
The data also showed that the nine abolished facilities cost the city government NT$4 million to build, but they only generated about 30,000kWh of electricity, which has a market value of just NT$100,000.
Taipei City Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chung-chieh (林崇傑) said that the solar project’s power generation efficiency had been low, and that the department is seeking other technologies to boost its production capacity.
The department has consulted the Ministry of Economic Affairs on the issue and would adjust the city’s energy policies next month, he said.
The city government is carrying out excavations on Yangmingshan to identify possible sources of geothermal power, Lin said, adding that the city expects to finalize guidelines on renewable energy by the second half of next year.
National Taiwan University professor of electrical engineering Huang Ping-chun (黃秉鈞) said past government policies on subsidizing people who install solar panels have led people to view harvesting solar energy as a means of generating profit, as the electricity generated is sold to state-run Taiwan Power Co at a fair price.
He recommended that the government encourage people to install photovoltaic modules, with each household using the energy it harvests, to boost public participation in solar energy generation.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the