An animal shelter in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) has become the city’s first to use solar panels, bringing a yearly savings in utility costs that could buy 840kg of dog food, the New Taipei City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office said on Friday.
Solar panels were last month installed on nearly 1,000m2 of the shelter’s roof last month, thanks to a joint venture between the city government and a photovoltaic company, the agency said in a statement.
The solar panels have been made of semiconductive material that uses sunlight to generate electrical energy in a process that does not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases, agency deputy director Huang Chia-wen (黃嘉文) said.
Photo courtesy of New Taipei City Government Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office
The project helps the agency contribute to Taiwan’s efforts to cut carbon emissions, while having a cooling effect on the shelter, she said, adding that the solar panels have improved the shelter’s insulation and air circulation in the dog pens.
The panels are powering air-conditioners, which would lower the temperatures in the dog pens by 3°C to 5°C during the summer, shelter veterinarian Huang Chih-ting (黃繼霆) said.
The solar cells can generate 76,000 kilowatts of power and cut carbon emissions by 38,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to planting 3,199 trees, she said.
The green energy project has enabled the shelter to get value out of unused floor space, improve conditions for the animals and protect the environment, she added.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS