Houhu River Ecology District, Xinwu Dist., Taoyuan City
Wishing for a Clean Homeland
Building a Low-Carbon Green City of Sustainability
Net zero is not necessarily zero carbon emission, but the efforts to minimize the emission of GHGs generated in activities of human beings, plus offset of such with negative carbon technology, forest or factory carbon sinks and other methods to achieve the purpose of net zero emissions.
Circular Economy, and Development of Sustainability.
"Taoyuan City Government has already started planning the Biomass Energy Center ever since the City's promotion," said Chen Yao-Cai, Associate Manager of Factory Affairs of Sonnarkraft Corp and one of the core figures in the BOT project of Guanyin Biomass Energy Center. "Taoyuan is very special. The City Government has set aside a 4.38-hectare land in Guanyin District and invited potential manufacturers to participate in tender. After we were awarded the contract, we also assisted with the central competent authority in the administrative procedures of environmental, special construction and planning permission to accelerate the promotion of this massive project."
The practice of circular economy is the value of urban development of sustainability. Taoyuan took initiative nationwide in promoting the three-in-one Biomass Energy Center, which incorporates thermal treatment unit, anaerobic digestion unit, and solidification and landfill unit. The thermal treatment unit for treating solid wastes may incinerate 600 tons of wastes daily; the anaerobic digestion unit for treating kitchen wastes has the capacity of incinerating 135 tons of such waste per day, with electricity generated by the heat throughout incineration available to be combined into the power grid for use; In addition, the fly ash generated in the process can be solidified and buried on site to save the high transportation costs at backend. The power generation efficiency of Biomass Energy Center is estimated to reach 28%, which is much higher than the certification standard of existing incinerator plants and renewable energy waste equipment in Taiwan. Its estimated annual power generation is projected to 220 Million kilowatt-hour, and high efficiency of such power generation is already at the green power level.
"The architectural design of the Center also has a story. Due to the Center's location by the sea, the roof of the Center itself contains seven layers inclusive of bottom plate, thermal insulation layer, waterproof layer, etc.; in the meantime, a lot of efforts were taken in the appearance design of the Center, with inspirations by the concepts of conduction of ocean waves and green power generation." According to Chen Yao-Cai, while a generic roof comes with only one or two layers, a multitude of considerations including architecture functionality and aesthetics were taken in the design of the Biomass Energy Center to express both the architectural safety and circular energy images.
The Guanyin Biomass Energy Center BOT case has a concession period of 25 years, with actual period for operation at 22 years after deducting the construction period. During this period, the operation team will dispose of Taoyuan’s annual 120,000 tons of waste and kitchen wastes free of charge, and burdens local rebates, change royalty, land rent, etc., which not only saves a huge expenditure of NT$ 8 Billion for the City treasury, but also avails a stable waste disposal channel for both maintaining the quality of life of citizens or industrial investors. The joint effort by public and private sectors have created for the next generation a possibility worth NT$ 8 Billion and the priceless sustainable environment. "This is a triple win for the citizens, the City Government and the industry," said Chen Yao-Cai with certainty.
Complete Enforcement Strategies and Effects
Following promotion to Special Municipality, Taoyuan City Government is well aware that population and industrial and commercial activities are bound to become more active, and the consequent pollution and environmental burdens require more forward-looking and more complete governance, infrastructure, and supporting policies to deal with.
Taoyuan has a complete blueprint for the development of a low-carbon green city, with implementation for more than 7 years. The City Government promoted the formulation of "Autonomous Regulations of Low-Carbon Green City Development in Taoyuan City" and the implementation of the "GHG Control and Implementation Plans", In addition conducting GHG inventory operations respectively in the sectors of industry, housing and commerce, transportation, agriculture and waste (environment) for the energy, fuel, wastewater and other detailed data. According to the data, Taoyuan City's per capita GHG emissions in 2020 was 13.06 tons of CO2e, decreased by 4.22% compared with that before the City's promotion (2014), showing the gradual implementation and certain effects of carbon reduction policies.
How does Taoyuan prescribe the right solutions to achieve substantial carbon reduction? Looking back to 2014, the City Government took legalization as the main principle and conducted cross-department consultations, with a consensus ultimately reached following numerous setbacks and difficulties. In 2017, the City effected "Autonomous Regulations of Low-Carbon Green City Development in Taoyuan City" aiming to encourage agencies, industries, and NGOs to implement energy conservation through the four orientations encompassing environmental education and life, city and architecture, industries, and transportations in order to achieve low carbon emission. Since the implementation of the Autonomous Regulations, the City government has initiated several amendments to the Regulations by incorporating the specification concerning use of recycled pellets, enhancement in the friendly environment featuring low-pollution vehicle, new penal provisions for major electricity users failure to install green energy equipment, and advocating reusable containers. In the meantime, the management of waste and transportation methods thereof are strengthened for continued excellence in the underlying nature to gradually prevail the environmental awareness.
With the legalization specifically promoting the mitigation of GHG emissions, and the promulgation of the "Greenhouse Reduction and Management Act" in 2015, the management system of GHGs received a substantial improvement, allowing effective grasping of carbon emissions and complementing of inventory system. Taoyuan City's GHG historical inventory results over the years indicate that the largest emission comes from the industrial energy sector, accounting for about 70% of all emissions, followed by the residential and commercial energy and transportation energy sectors, each accounting for about 10%~13%. With clear GHG emissions plus 2018~2020 cooperation with the GHG Reduction Policy of the Executive Yuan, greater focus on policies were made, which enable the successful transformation from the "Taoyuan City Low-Carbon Green City Flagship Project" to the "GHG Control and Implementation Plan" as the foundation of GHG reduction policies and action plans in different phases.
The Major Four Fields Covering Various Aspects
In terms of energy, Taoyuan took the nationwide initiative in promoting the three-in-one Biomass Energy Center, which can incinerate 600 tons of waste and 135 tons of kitchen wastes daily, along with power generation at the projected 220 Million kilowatt-hour and a power generation efficiency at the green electricity level to 28%. Under the circumstances which insolation duration in Northern Taiwan is fewer than those in Central and Southern Taiwan, the City Government overcame the difficulties and reached an agreement with local manufacturers in the installation of rooftop solar optoelectronics, with current development inclusive of diversified green energy, energy storage equipment, virtual power plants, etc., to maximize green energy constructions. The renewable energy installations reach a capacity of 691MW, of which the solar optoelectronics tops amongst Northern Taiwan cities and counties.
In terms of industry, the replacement subsidy for industrial and commercial boilers involving fuel boilers with high carbon emission are changed to models consuming clean fuels such as biomass fuel, solid renewable fuel (SRF), liquefied natural gas (LNG), and 1,572 boilers have been replaced under subsidy within 7 years, as negotiations with large manufacturers have been conducted simultaneously. Taking the Datan Power Plant as an example, its reduction in nitrogen oxide emission through units improvement is far lower than that under total EIA; In addition, the introduction of low-carbon technology industrial processes facilitates the industrial reform into a green energy industry and improved energy efficiency.
In terms of transportation, the City Government has constructed a three-hub and six-line MRT network connecting the three major metropolitan areas and six MRT lines across Taoyuan; in the meantime, through the electric motorcycle subsidy for accelerating elimination of two-stroke motorcycles has contributed the current registration of electric motorcycles exceeding 80,000, a 10-fold growth compared to figures prior to promotion. On top of such is the addition of battery charging (swap) stations and friendly services for facilitating electric motorcycle prevalence. In terms of lighting, the City has completely replaced traditional mercury vapor lights with smart street lighting systems. The 162,000 intelligent LED street lights can effectively reduce energy consumption by about 70%, and the electricity bill for street lights is reduced from NT$ 219 Million to NT$ 66 Million a year, which not only greatly reduces expenses but also improves road safety.
Advancing Hand in Hand in the Net Zero Path
In the COP 26 in 2021 with 2050 net zero goal set as topic, various cities across the world were invited for participation in the initiatives, and Taoyuan City with the pleasure to participate is the only Taiwanese delegation in its physical conference. Taoyuan shared the City's low-carbon strategy with the world, and also showed a positive attitude towards international exchanges. In 2022, Taoyuan officially announced the net zero path and incorporated the 2050 net zero goal into its Autonomous Regulations of Low-Carbon Green City Development, with practices in cohesion to the Climate Change Adaptation Act.
Taoyuan City Government has planned the net zero path in its net zero goal, with expected realizations by 2025 including replacement of half of the old power-consuming equipment in government agencies and schools, Taoyuan MRT open for operation, development of biomass energy, and ecological afforestation; by 2030, the coal-burning in the industry will gradually transform to zero, which is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 60%, and the City is expected to promote the full electrification of official vehicles and passenger transport; in 2050, more than 50% of the people-oriented transportation environment, 85% of buildings have zero carbon emissions, and more than 90% of industry vendors have low-carbon emissions, whilst carbon neutrality and capture technologies and utilizations are conducted to transform Taoyuan from a low-carbon city into a zero-carbon city.