Yushan National Park is to upgrade solar power generation facilities at its mountain cabins to provide stable power supply that can last for up to 10 days even in cloudy conditions.
The Yushan National Park Headquarters yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Ta Tun Electric Wire and Cable Co (TEWC) on collaborating to upgrade the microgrid for mountain cabins.
National Park Service Director-General Wang Cheng-chi (王成機) at the signing ceremony said that the national park’s mountain cabins have long relied on solar energy for lighting, telecommunications and simple meal preparation.
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
However, they are mostly located in remote areas, making it difficult to maintain or renew their solar equipment, he said.
Nearly 30 of the total 40 cabins at the national park are equipped with solar power systems, but the equipment’s efficiency has decreased with time, Wang said.
With advanced power grid technology, TEWC has become the first corporation to engage in a solar facility upgrade plan for mountain cabins, he said, adding the headquarters’ collaboration with TEWC would start with Walami Cabin (瓦拉米山屋) in Hualien County.
Upgraded solar systems are expected to boost the energy efficiency to at least three times higher than the original equipment, Wang said.
The construction is slated to begin on Aug. 5 and would be completed in five days.
Lin Mei-ling (林美伶), chief executive officer of Tun Green Power Co, an affiliate of TEWC, said the company’s solar energy storage equipment can store 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity.
She said that 1kWh is enough to fully charge 60 hikers’ mobile phones, or provide heat for making 60 bowls of instant noodles.
Such amounts of power are unlikely to be used up under regular circumstances, Lin said, adding the power would be enough for 10-day use even on sunshine-free, cloudy days.
The new equipment can be conveniently managed via mobile phones, and its solar panels would adopt an all-black design to blend seamlessly into the environment and minimize ecological impacts, she said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
RSS