Taipower 2024 Environmental Month Presentation: Premiering the Largest-Scale Bat Research

Taipower recently held its 2024 Environmental Month Presentation, reviewing the environmental achievements of 2023. Taipower's own fossil fuel unit's pollutants emission intensity[1] has decreased by nearly 70% since 2016, and its carbon emission intensity (CO2 emissions per kWh) has also decreased by 8%.

In 2023, Taipower released the ecological documentary at the Kaohsiung Hsinta Power Plant Yung'an Wetland, which won 7 awards, including the "Awards of Excellence" in the 2024 Global Film Competition and the U.S. Short Film Competition. This year, it collaborates with director Hong-Long Xu to produce the ecological documentary The Great Bat Migration, which documents the relocation of bats in the Taixi Wind Farm.

Taipower installed 4 wind turbines at the Yunlin Taixi Wind Farm, supplying approximately 23 million kWh of green energy annually, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of nearly 6,000 households, and bringing about more than 10,000 tons of carbon reduction benefits. Initial surveys revealed abundant bat ecology in the area. To balance energy development and biodiversity conservation, Taipower initiated the "Bat Habitat Relocation Project" in 2020, guiding bats to migrate to new habitats south of the wind farm through habitat compensation.

Taipower explained that it had previously installed 100 bat nesting boxes around the wind farm, with over 1,700 instances of use tracked monthly, resulting in a 95% occupancy rate. Since March this year, an additional 70 nesting boxes have been installed in windbreak forests and power poles on the south side of the wind farm, facilitating bats' relocation to their new homes. Additionally, construction was scheduled to avoid bat breeding seasons, carried out in zones and sections, and equipped with real-time sensing systems. In the future, if a large-scale migration of bats or birds is detected during turbine operation, remote control can be used to reduce load or shut down, balancing stable power supply and environmental ecology.

Taipower also released the selected ecological maps of 8 major power plants and 10 unique species, including Concord Power Plant (corals), Cholan Hydro Power Plant (purple crow butterflies), Tachia River Power Plant (plumbeous water redstarts and Taiwan torrent carps), Wanta Hydro Power Plant (Aeolesthes oenochrous and Taiwan soybeans), Taixi Wind Farm (Japanese house bats), Hsinta Power Plant (black-faced spoonbills), Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant (sparrows), and Chienshan Power Plant (Chinese water chestnuts).

Over the past few years, Taipower has been making efforts to upgrade the environmental protection equipment for its units. It has also started low-carbon gas unit renewal projects, and is actively promoting carbon capture and power generation through hydrogen and ammonia blending. As a result, the company has been able to gradually achieve net-zero electricity. Additionally, Taipower intends to respond to the international concept of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM), and create an ecological symbiosis in power construction.

Note: [1] Emission intensity of air pollutants refers to the total amount of particulate matter (PM), sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and other air pollutants generated per unit of electricity produced.

Taipower released the selected ecological maps of 8 major power plants and 10 unique species