The Green Advocates Energy Cooperative yesterday announced the completion of its first solar farm on a residential rooftop in Miaoli County and used the occasion to call on the government to be transparent about the risk and maintenance costs associated with such an investment.
Established in October 2016, the cooperative aims to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by pooling its members’ investments.
The cooperative helped a family in the county’s Toufen City (頭份) install 34 pieces of high-efficiency solar panels on its 18.5 ping (61.16m2) rooftop, cooperative chairperson Hwang Shu-te (黃淑德) said.
The panels have a capacity of 10.03 kilowatts and are expected to generate 10,832 kilowatt-hours per year, she said, adding that construction cost about NT$642,229, excluding a 20-year contract covering management and maintenance costs.
Taiwanese should become “prosumers” — producers as well as consumers — of electricity, she said, adding that in Germany, almost half of renewable energy plants are owned and operated by private citizens.
“Hopefully, every Taiwanese will be able to choose from different ‘green’ energy sources by 2025,” she said, adding that the group is to help two other residences in Kaohsiung and New Taipei City install photovoltaic capacity.
The solar installation’s successful completion by a citizens’ group is a crucial step in the nation’s energy transformation, which has mostly been propelled by government agencies and big corporations, said Executive Yuan Office of Energy and Carbon Reduction deputy executive officer Lin Tze-luen (林子倫), who is also a cooperative member.
The office is to launch an action plan to promote citizen-run power plants before June, which is to be included in the government’s energy transformation white paper, Lin said.
The cooperative urged the government to provide full transparency and to streamline the application process for installations of power plants.
The cooperative spent about 10 months completing the solar farm’s installation and most delays were due to changes to construction regulations and administrative barriers, Huang said.
For example, many people have difficulty understanding the technical language on application forms provided by state-run utility and grid operator Taiwan Power Co, which they need to fill in to have their installation connected to the power grid, she said.
Government agencies and other energy developers also seldom reveal the financial risks posed by potential damage to solar panels and their maintenance cost, she said, adding that systems generally start to decay from the sixth year after their completion.
Other problems include the prevalence of illegal structures on rooftops and abundant rainfall in certain regions that can accelerate decay in photovoltaic structures, said energy consultant Chiu Ying-chou (邱瀛洲), another cooperative member.
The government should disclose such information along with its energy-related regulations and help people build secure installations that could last for 20 years, he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard