A Visit to Pingtung's Green Energy Sites: A Full Record of the Study Tour
Time: 2015/2/7 8:00~18:00
Organizer: Southern Taiwan Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance
Co-organizers: Citizens Earth Foundation, Blue Donggang River Conservation Association
Summary: Through this study tour, participants learn about Pingtung County's three green energy developments: biogas power generation, alluvial fan underflow water, and water-retention solar farming in land subsidence areas plus smart green power. The route also crosses the waterway distribution of settlements of the Liudui Hakka, Paiwan, and Heluo Pingpu ethnic groups. From green energy development and the distribution of ethnic groups and water systems, participants come to understand local characteristics and grasp the causal relationship behind Pingtung's development of green energy to protect water resources.
The county government matches solar photovoltaic companies with fish pond owners or owners of salt-damaged farmland to lease land; the green energy company pays rent higher than the income from aquaculture or wax apple (lianwu) cultivation, and at the same time hires local farmers and fishermen to maintain the solar photovoltaic equipment (cleaning dust off the panels to improve power generation efficiency). The profits the green energy company gains from the electricity generated by the solar photovoltaics, purchased by Taipower, must also include a certain proportion paid back to the Pingtung County Government.
Although the lease runs as long as 20 years, the county government steps in to integrate landowners and pond owners, allowing the installed capacity of solar photovoltaics to reach economies of scale and raising green energy companies' willingness to invest. For farmers and fishermen whose farmland or fish ponds were damaged by Typhoon Morakot, the rental income from water-retention solar farming is better than growing wax apples or aquaculture, which amounts to indirect vocational retraining, so they no longer over-pump groundwater. For the national land environment, over 20 years the subsided land is refilled through the power of nature, seeking to coexist with water under climate change. Pingtung's water-retention solar farming can be said to achieve a win-win-win situation for the green energy industry, the farmers and fishermen affected by Typhoon Morakot, and national land restoration.
Further links:
Livestock Research Institute bedding pig housing—Besides using wastewater for biogas power generation, pig farms have another new option. Livestock Research Institute bedding pig housing can save a large amount of water resources; with current pig production, within 10 years it could save Taiwan over 200 million tons of water resources, offering the most advanced method for the pig industry to respond to an era of water shortage.
Laiyi Township package tours—The Blue Donggang River Conservation Association has long accompanied the various tribes of Laiyi Township in community building work and has designed several mature one-day or two-day itineraries; tourists can sign up to experience them through the Xin Laiyi Production and Marketing Center.
Yinfangsuo Seafood Expert—an excellent aquatic product brand jointly established by several aquaculture farmers in Linbian; the products have passed traceability certification and carry the county government-approved "Pingtung Quality Aquatic Product Certification Mark," safeguarding consumers' health right at the farming stage.