Taipei 101: We should learn from Taiwan!

Last weekend, I joined a group of Cebu media personalities for an educational tour of Taipei, Taiwan hosted by the consortium of Global Formosa Power Holdings Inc. and Abovant Holdings Inc. to learn about “clean coal” technology that would soon be introduced in Cebu at the Sangi, Toledo power plant. We were hosted by Feng-in Hong, senior administrator of Formosa Heavy Industries (FHI) who doubled as our tour guide, and Miren Falcultad of Global. In truth, we got more education than we expected.

First stop was the Jin-Shin 300-MW power plant in Tao Yuan county, which did not actually look like a power plant from the outside as it was right inside an IT park that manufactures LCDs and semiconductors. This coal-fired power plant was also right beside the Tai Shopping Plaza in the county’s commercial district. This plant could be placed beside these two major facilities simply because it uses clean coal technology.

First thing that we noticed was the total absence of soot that usually litters the surrounding areas of any industrial plant. Then there was a dome-shaped structure, actually the huge warehouse for a small hill of coal that the plant used. In Naga, Cebu, coal is just left outside the power plant and when the winds come, it brings dust to the entire town. Well, it doesn’t happen in this Taipei plant. Then we moved up to the roof near the smokestack and noticed that it emitted a white cloud, not black soot smoke. There is no doubt that this plant proves that clean coal technology works!

Off we went to the Hwa-Ya power plant right across a high-tech park in KueiShan that manufactures silicon chips that require “clean rooms.” Yet this clean coal power plant is just across this chip factory. This power plant is twice the size of the power plant we visited earlier and it had double the dome to house a mountain of coal; after all, it uses 55 tons of coal per hour.

Yes, we were convinced that clean coal technology works in Taiwan and we learned that the protection of the environment has become some sort of religion by the Taiwanese people. In the Philippines, religion is being used to block such kinds of projects, out of the ignorance of the clerics who know no better! In short, clean coal technology has been in use in Taiwan for the last 12 years; it has become a non-issue to the Taiwanese people, who care about their environment and wouldn’t wait for their government to impose strict environmental protection standards for their power plants.

The most interesting power plant we visited was the Peilou incinerator owned by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Taipei. Yes, the government protection agency itself runs this power plant that uses not coal, but Taipei’s garbage to fuel its power plants. That’s not the exciting part. It’s huge smokestack is as high as a 30-story building, yet they erected a revolving restaurant which offers one of Taipei’s best views, next to the famous Taipei 101.

All the time, we thought that incinerating garbage was a no-no! Yet we were right there and we even thought that the power plant was not running, as there was no smoke coming out of the smokestack. To prove their confidence in their technology, the Taipei government constructed a heated swimming pool beside this plant and also a children’s playground. No sir, there were no mountains of garbage (a la Payatas), just simple technology working to help clean up the environment and even make the facility a tourist spot!

Yes, we did go up the 91st floor of the Taipei 101, taking the world’s fastest elevator. But there is no question that Taiwan’s made good use of its technology to make things better. If only someone came up with an anti-corruption technology, I’m sure Taiwan would be the first to invent this. In the meantime, its former President Chen-Shui-bian is now in jail awaiting corruption charges, while his son-in-law, Dr. Chao Chien-ming, was sentenced by the Taiwan High Court to seven years in jail for corruption and fraud.

If you ask why Taiwan is so prosperous, I reckon that I found the answer last Saturday evening after dinner when we went to the huge Eslite Bookstore at 10 p.m. and it was teeming with people, mostly the young, who crammed every nook, floor and cranny voraciously devouring the books on display. I found this quite remarkable because it showed that young Taiwanese are avid readers. Mind you, the queues at the cashiers were quite long. Remember the old saying, “knowledge is power”? That’s exactly what we get when we teach our children to read, read and read. Alas, Filipinos are hooked on TV and video games or chatting on the Internet, while the girls are busy reading only showbiz news! We ought to learn from our Taiwanese neighbors!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable.