The promotion of low-carbon sustainable development of the year started from the contract day on 29 Apr 2014 till 31 Dec 2014. Apart from setting 4 consecutive meetings into action to maintain the operating system, 8 team meetings related to the adoption of “green transportation” and “energy saving of the facilities” were taken place to discuss the operational performance technology and to provide information and advices. Furthermore, to cooperate with assessmentson the low-carbon sustainable development and trail runs of the classification and certification system proposed by the Environmental Protection Administration of Executive Yuan (herein after shortened as EPA), not only assessment, classification and certification activities were promoted among neighborhoods, districts and cities / counties, but also power saving diagnosis and consultations were carried out sustainably. Furthermore, power saving and carbon reduction related projects were carried out such as assisting Chiayi City to join the Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and sign "the Mexico City Pact”.
While assisting government institutions at all levels to participate in assessment, classification and certification activities, Chiayi City also succeeded in entering the nomination list and upgraded with bronze-level qualification this year. That is, not only the East District Office of Chiayi City received the bronze-level certification, but also the West District Office successfully entered the nomination list and upgraded with a bronze-level qualification. Besides, 31 neighborhoods also entered the nomination list, where one of them received the silver-level certification and 14 received the bronze-lever certification.
While the low-carbon sustainable development operating system has been promoted and strengthened and related performance evaluation activities have been conducted to track and summarize implementation results of the five major green power oriented project “A green power city and a low carbon homeland”, and while the CO2e was reduced around 4,207.3 tons every year due to the promotion of autonomous management of diesel vehicles,(1) low-pollution vehicles and free public bicycle lending services, industrial green power already promoted autonomous saving for water / electricity and put the clean energy concept into practice to reduce 4,169 tons of CO2e every year; (2) residential and commercial green power is managed to reduce 2,072 tons of CO2e every year through the diagnosis, guidelines and improvements of the 4 savings projects (electricity, water, fuel and paper savings) initiated by institutes and schools as well as power-saving measures for temples; (3) renewable green power has not only carried out resource classification and recycling, but also implemented power saving measures in incineration plants to reduce about 17 tons of carbon emission every year, and; (4) planting green power can reduce 8,664 tons of CO2e everyyear by increasing the afforested area.
Regarding communities’power saving project, the advisory group of Chiayi City has completed power saving diagnosis in 15 areas including 7 aggregate residences, 2 kindergartens, 1 cultural and educational tutoring center, 1 hotel, 1 business building, 1 retail store, 1 restaurant and 1 stationary discount center. Besides, under the cooperation with the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration (Ministry of Economic Affairs), the power saving advisory group of Chiayi City also assisted 2 companies to carry out on-site power saving evaluation services. According to on-site power saving evaluation results, advised units are provided with a power saving evaluation report with suggested improvements on the electricity, lighting and air-conditioning systems, greenery plantation on roofs and installation of water-saving facilities. Besides, improvement costs and benefits of power saving and carbon reduction activities are also estimated as a reference for advised units to implement improvement projects.
Among the 9 units assisted by the Energy Services Company (ESCO) to carry out an evaluation on power saving improvement works, 2 of them having shown their willingness to have improvements on power saving after the consultation this year. After the supplier provided engineering projects, budget and cooperation pattern, 3 units have signed the power saving improvement project contract and completed the improvement works before the end of February 2015 with an estimated reduction of 50.47 tons of CO2e per year.
Looking at 57 advised units in 2013, 28 of them have actually carried out power saving related improvement works. According to 14 advised units’ electricity bills from Jan of 2014 to Oct 2014, the power saving rate after the improvement is between 0.06% and 55.6%, totally saved 139,656 degrees. Having this number calculated based on the electricity emission factor of 0.522 kg CO2e per degree, about 72.9 tons of CO2e were reduced.
To encourage citizens to install solar heating systems in order to well-use the City’s advantages on having plentiful sunshine and to lower the greenhouse gas emission by using natural resources effectively, the 2014 Solar Heating Facility Lucky Draw was taken place. That is, residents, companies and private medical institutions registered in Chiayi City and installed solar heating facilities from 1 Jan 2014 to 15 Oct 2014 are eligible to join the campaign. There were 177 households joined this campaigned with an installation surface of 814.55m2. According to the statistics of International Energy Agency (IEA), the solar heating system within the territory of the R.O.C. can save 52 kg of gas per square meter of heat-absorbing surface, which is about 190 kg of carbon dioxide. The installation households registered in this lucky draw can save about 42.36 tons of gas and reduce 154.76 tons of carbon dioxide emission.
Regarding the future promotion, it is suggested to sustainably assist neighborhoods to participate in the assessment and certification of low-carbon sustainable development, to facilitate each operating function, to assist the communities to sustainably promote power saving facilities and low carbon life, and to co-work with surrounding schools to provide students the community service opportunity. That is, apart from encouraging students to participate in community works, students’ influences are also used to create ideas on community related affairs, which are used as recommendations on communities’ promotion of network and product design and marketing. Besides, it is also suggested to promote the installation of cloud intelligence surveillance and intelligence electric meter to manage the status of electricity consumption and power consumption facilities for power saving related improvements. Besides, cooperations with the community, constructors or solar energy related associations also formed into shape to promote high-efficiency water heating facilities and regeneration power, where the range of solar energy is gradually expanded from the community.
