Kinmen to expand green energy efforts

Want China Times, CNA 2015-01-31

A street view in Kinmen. (File photo/Li Chin-sheng)

Officials from Taiwan's outlying island of Kinmen county explored plans Thursday with one of the nation's top research institutions to develop microgrid and power storage systems to deliver green energy and minimize carbon emissions across the outlying island county.

Jen Kuo-kang, an official at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, met with Kinmen deputy magistrate Lin De-gong and the county's Environmental Protection Bureau chief, Fu Yu-dong.

Lin announced plans to establish Lieyu township as a carbon-free island modelled after Gulangyu island, a renowned tourist destination off the coast of Xiamen in the southern Chinese province of Fujian.

Lin said that carbon emission reduction measures will be implemented in Lieyu township, better known as Little Kinmen, with the goal of expanding the guidelines throughout the archipelago.

The meeting also discussed Kinmen's environmental preservation efforts, including low carbon emission initiatives for local factories, maritime transportation, architecture, the development of renewable energy sources and an ecological park.

According to Jen, the state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) has previously expressed support for Kinmen to develop alternative energy production other than costly fossil fuel energy production, and that the company supports the bid toward a carbon-free archipelago.

Jen said that in 2010 the local government's plans to develop an energy storage and microgrid power distribution system were approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and that since then, tremendous progress has been made to achieve energy self-sufficiency across the islands.

In 2011 a mobile microgrid and storage system was implemented at the Kinmen Peace Memorial Park, followed by the installation of a similar system at a local school campus in 2012.

Jen stated that microgrids help minimize the area's reliance on the centralized power grid provided by Taipower, and reduce carbon emissions.

The county government also said that officials hope to explore the possibility of purchasing energy from China during an upcoming cross-strait summit meeting set to take place in Kinmen next month.

Mainland Affairs Council minister Wang Yu-chi is poised to meet China's Taiwan Affairs Office director Zhang Zhijun at a conference in Kinmen Feb. 7.

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