The development plan of the low-carbon island, Penghu

Abstract

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. chooses Penghu Island as a pilot case to illustrate the strategies to establish a low-carbon society in Taiwan. A greenhouse gas inventory based procedure has been proposed to determine a proper development plan. In view of the abundant wind resource of the Penghu Island, wind energy is adopted as the major measure to reduce about 50% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Penghu Island. Moreover, to construct a sustainable living environment, resources recycling, multisource water supply, zero-waste management and other approaches are also considered. This project will be completed in 5 years (from 2011 to 2015), and the total amount of budget is about 8.09 billion TWD (~270 million USD). The low-carbon island project comprises eight aspects, including renewable energy, energy saving, green transportation, low-carbon building, forestation, resource recycling, low-carbon life and low-carbon education. After the completion of this project, the generated electricity from renewable energy will exceed electricity consumption in Penghu Island, and carbon emission per capita every year will be reduced to 2.1 tons- CO2e/year from 5.4 tons-CO2e/year. The applications of renewable energy and other carbon reduction strategies in this project can be an ideal study case for achieving a low-carbon society in other areas. © 2012 WIT Press.