Taipei is building its first solar power plant using ground-mounted solar panels at a former landfill, the city government said yesterday.
The project is part of the capital’s efforts to expand the use of renewable energy.
The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection yesterday signed a contract with Taipei-based Tatung, one of Taiwan’s leading brands for energy saving and “green” energy-related systems and services, at a ceremony at Fudekeng Environmental Restoration Park (福德坑復育公園), where the solar power plant is to be built.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The 37 hectare park in the Muzha (木柵) area on the southeastern edge of the city used to be a landfill.
The solar power plant is expected to be completed by the end of this year and is to be able to generate up to 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection said.
Speaking at the ceremony, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that renewable energy sources generate about 487 million kilowatt-hours of electricity for Taipei, which accounts for only 3 percent of the city’s total power consumption.
The city is aiming to increase the contribution by renewable energy sources to 10 percent of its total power generation by the end of 2025, Ko said.
To that end, the city government is to use public land to develop solar power systems and will also subsidize the private sector to install solar power facilities to encourage wider use of solar energy, Ko said.
The new plant is expected to cut 18,905 tonnes of carbon emissions in the city annually, the department said.
The park is spacious and receives sufficient sunlight, department Commissioner Liou Ming-lone (劉銘龍) said, citing the latter as one of the reasons that it was chosen as the location for the plant.
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the
Mask easing: Teachers are allowed to take their masks off while lecturing indoors, but students should keep theirs on, as COVID-19 measures ease this week The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday released new on-campus COVID-19 prevention guidelines, stating that masks can be taken off while exercising, singing, dancing, performing, taking photographs, dining, drinking, video and voice recording, hosting events, presenting speeches and lecturing outdoors. Large outdoor events organized by schools should comply with the mask regulations issued by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), it added. The new guidelines came into effect yesterday, and people in Taiwan are no longer required to wear masks outdoors for the first time since May 19 last year. The CECC announced the easing of the mask mandate on Monday, adding that it
LUNAR NEW YEAR PEAK: Taiwanese who are in China should get vaccinated and consider returning early, as infection rates are expected to increase, the CECC said China faces five major problems once COVID-19 begins spreading there, with a peak in infections likely during the Lunar New Year holidays, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said yesterday. Wang wrote on Facebook that according to the center’s data, the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China is worth noting, as the new Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 spreading in China are highly infectious and are more transmissible than the previously dominating Omicron subvariants. “The virus cannot be eliminated even under China’s strict control measures,” he wrote. “Its policy
‘SEXUAL ASSAULT’: Taipei prosecutors said that cooperation agreements between Taiwan and the Czech Republic grant Czech officials protection against prosecution The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday reaffirmed that it would not charge a Czech official with sexual assault because he is protected by diplomatic immunity. The office released a statement saying it has verified that the man works for the Czech Economic and Cultural Office Taipei’s foreign affairs corps and is thereby protected from criminal prosecution. A foreign graduate student in Taiwan had filed a complaint alleging that the section head of the Czech Economic and Trade Section had sexually assaulted her on April 21 last year. The woman said the Czech official had invited her to his home and then forced her
RSS