Learning new technologies from Taiwan

Last weekend we were in Taipei, the Republic of China for a media educational tour hosted by Formosa Heavy Industries, Inc. (FHI) the partner of Global Business Power Corp. in a coal-fired power plant consortium that they are currently constructing in Sangi, Toledo. I haven’t been back to Taiwan in last ten years. A lot of things have changed since. It is no longer a motorbike only country because they now have a Metro Rail Transit (MRT), although scooters are still very much in use.

It was a very short, but hectic trip and we covered a lot of ground. We had Mr. Feng-in Hong of FHI and Ms. Miren Facultad of Global Power to escort the group. Our first concern really was whether the clean coal technology really works as advertised. We first went to the 300MW Jin-Shin Power Plant located on a high-tech industrial park that produces LCDs and semiconductors. As we entered, we couldn’t even notice where the power plant was, until our attention was directed to a huge dome-like structure which turned out to be the coal-yard.

With the coal inside this mega-igloo structure, there is no dust swirling around the plant. For a coal-powered plant, it was surprisingly clean. That is one characteristic of a clean coal technology. As we went up the top of the power plant, white smoke greeted us, which turned out to be steam, rather than the usual black soot emitting from the funnel of the power plant. We didn’t get blackened by its emissions. Proof was when we looked at Super Bobby Nalzaro who always wears his signature white clothes. He came out of the power plant still in his splendid white shirt, pants and shoes.

Right beside this coal-fired plant is the Tai Shopping Plaza, which shows that the residents of Tao Yuan know that clean coal technology is a way to have cheap power without polluting the environment. If it works in Taipei, it should also work in this country.

We went to the next bigger power plant, the Hwa-Ya Power Plant also inside the Hwa-Ya Technology Park, in Kueishan Tao Yuan County. This plant was across a factory that produces silicon wafer, which needs a very clean environment, yet the presence of the plant did not deter the investor from operating beside it. The plants dome coal yard was twice the size of the first plant we visited, it was literally a mountain of coal inside this huge igloo. Again, no dust were swirling around and its exhaust generates white steam.

The next day we got a big surprise when we were treated to lunch on top of a huge 30-storey tower where it had a revolving restaurant. This was the Peilou Incinerator, owned and operated by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) of Taipei City. Yes, the government protection agency itself runs this power plant that uses garbage, not coal, to fuel its power plants. Perched from high up the top, you could see the power plant below and the yellow compactor garbage trucks parked outside with their load of garbage.

I have always thought that incinerating garbage was taboo, but apparently through Taiwanese technology, they have developed a system that eliminates the toxins by scrubbing them off, the very same system that they use in their clean coal technology. The system works so well, there is no smoke coming out of the plant, no noise and best of all, Taipei City put a children’s playground beside it and a covered swimming pool that uses heated water coming from the power plant. The revolving restaurant on top of the smokestack has also became somewhat of a tourist attraction as it gives a great 360 degree view of Taipei.

Here we are, scratching our heads on our already filled-to-the-brim sanitary landfill. If I was running this city, I’d contact the Taipei City Government and find out how they turned a garbage dumpsite into a very interesting power plant that uses the city’s garbage as its fuel source.

Apparently we also learned that Clean Coal technology is already here, in a plant that is now operating in Pampanga by another consortium also with Formosa Heavy Industries. What we wanted to know was whether there were unseen health hazards surrounding the power plant. The reply was a negative, but with a caution; that while they can control things inside the power plant, pollution from other sources around the power plant is something beyond their control.

Well, just like the Sangi Power Plant beside the national road where polluting old trucks pass very regularly. What we need to do is embrace the new technology that is being presented and adopt it, the way the Taiwanese do where environmental protection has become a religion there.