The number of wind turbines along the west coast is now more than 100 and the renewable energy generated by these units should be sufficient to prevent emissions of 250,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, energy officials said yesterday.
During a ceremony at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park to promote the use and efficiency of wind power, officials from the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said the 103 giant wind turbines located at 13 wind farms along the west coast can generate 420 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year -- enough energy to power as many as 105,000 households.
The windmills were established by Taiwan Power (Taipower), the private-run Tien-Lung Paper and InfraVest Wind Power Group, a German company that entered the market in 2000 as the first wind farm builder in Taiwan.
PHOTO: CNA
Officials said that more windmills are under construction in western coastal areas and Penghu, with an additional total capacity of 500 megawatts.
Each unit will cost at least NT$100 million (US$3 million) to build.
They said the coastal areas are ideal for the development of wind power, as they enjoy six months of strong northwesterly winds every year, with an average wind speed of 5 meters per second to 6 meters per second.
The Bureau of Energy has set the target of generating enough renewable energy to meet 10 percent of the country's electricity needs by 2010, with wind power making up 80 percent of the renewable energy.
Taipower, the sole electricity supplier in the country, began to harness wind energy in 2002 and plans to establish 200 wind turbines in Taiwan proper and Penghu by 2010.
Taipower's long-term wind power development plant will build an additional 546 wind turbines between 2010 and 2020 in shallow waters off the west coast and Penghu, with a total capacity of 1,980 megawatts.
The estimated cost for the wind turbines is NT$200 million each.
Out of the 546 windmills, 176 will be built off Penghu and the electricity generated by these units will be relayed to Taiwan through a 40km-long undersea cable.
The other 370 units will be established 10km to 15km off the coast of Changhua and Yunlin counties, Taipower said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS