Taichung expects to save 300,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), or NT$1.05 million (US$35,916) in electricity fees, per year, after completing 210 new bus stops that have solar panels and sport new lighting systems, furthering the municipal goals for green transport, Taichung Transportation Bureau Director-General Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) said on Friday.
The bus stops that the former Taichung County built were too simple and many lacked lighting, Wang said, adding that the municipal government built the new stops at a cost of NT$80,000 per stop.
The old bus stops consumed 1,429kWh per year, costing the municipality NT$5,000, Wang said.
Photo: Huang Chung-shan, Taipei Times
The solar panels on the new bus stops generate electricity for lighting and could save about 755kg of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per stop, as well as lowering the electricity bill, Wang said.
The Taichung City Government gave priority to rural areas in replacing bus stops, not only saving 160 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, but also making passengers waiting for buses late at night feel safer because of the better lighting, Wang said.
A lack of lighting in the past forced passengers to step outside bus stops to flag buses down, the department said, adding that passengers could now safely wait under the cover of the bus stops.
The new bus stops are bright, safe and environmentally friendly, and they change the image of the city, a student surnamed Ko (柯) said, urging the municipality to build more.
Taichung is uniquely positioned to develop renewable sources of energy, the city government said, adding that with the new stops, it now boasts the greatest number of solar-powered bus stops in the nation.
New Taipei City and Tainan each has more than 10, but less than 20, Kaohsiung has 30 and Taipei has fewer than that, the city said.
Depending on the efficiency of the solar panels, the municipal government is considering installing additional LED displays with information on the buses’ whereabouts, the municipality said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS