A wind farm comprised of 432 vertical-axis wind turbines on the coast of Changhua County’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑) has become the county’s latest tourist attraction.
The DS-3000 turbines, which has a two-blade system that guarantees high efficiency while enabling the system to activate even with very weak winds, were erected by a power company, which rented about 26,000 ping (85,950m2) of idle fish farms in the township’s Sinbao Village (新寶), near the Wanggong Fishing Port (王功漁港).
The turbines look like egg beaters, and standing in the middle of the turbines feels like being on a different planet, a resident of the county’s Lugang Township (鹿港), surnamed Hsu, said on Monday.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
This is the county’s first privately financed wind farm on aquaculture land, Taiwan Power Co’s Changhua branch said.
The turbines have been registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it added.
Each turbine generates up to 3 kilowatts of electricity, which could be sold for NT$8.97 per kilowatt-hour, it said.
The ministry’s Bureau of Energy approved the equipment’s registration in its initial review, but the wind farm is on aquaculture land, which cannot be freely used for other purposes, Changhua County Government Department of Economic Affairs Director Liu Yu-ping (劉玉平) said.
However, the Council of Agriculture is open to conditional land category changes, he said, adding that the department would review the case after it receives an application from the company.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it