A small-scale hydrogen power plant in Taichung, the first of its kind in Taiwan initiated by a local government, began operating on Wednesday.
The Shishuike River Small Hydropower Plant has an installed capacity of 185 kilowatt-hours (kWh), meaning it can sell about 1,000 renewable esnergy certificates a year, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said during the opening ceremony for the plant.
Each certificate represents 1,000kWh of green power generated from renewable sources and can reduce carbon emissions by about 0.5 tonnes.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
The green energy generated by the plant and the renewable energy certificates are to be sold to Delta Energy, a subsidiary of Delta Electronics, Lu said.
The core services of Delta Energy include assisting businesses in procuring green energy and achieving zero carbon goals, the company said.
BOT MODEL
Lu said the project was launched based on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) public-private partnership model, under which the city signed a 20-year cooperation contract with partner companies investing in the building of the plant, which would be transferred to the city government after 20 years of operation.
She also touted the city government’s efforts to promote renewable energy, saying that all government offices and schools in Taichung are required to have solar panel installations on their rooftops.
More than 85 percent of schools in the city have installed solar panels, she added.
The city’s renewable power generation reaches 2.56 billion kilowatt-hours every year, which is equivalent to one-third of the power generated by the Taichung Thermal Power Plant, Lu said.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that the Taichung City Government’s experiences in combating climate change can be used as a reference by other local governments.
A transition to renewable energy is essential to mitigating climate change, Peng said, adding that while small-sized hydropower plants can generally produce only small amounts of power, they can generate great benefits cumulatively.
Peng added that he hoped the first local government-initiated small hydropower project would attract more to emulate it.
As for renewable energy certificates, Peng said that after companies purchase green electricity certificates, they can be used to offset carbon fees in the future, as Taiwan has yet to set a carbon fee rate.
To cope with future carbon tariffs, companies would work hard to achieve net zero, creating a promising market for green certificates, he 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