The government is planning to replace 30 per cent of the country’s existing mercury vapor streetlamps with LED streetlamps this year in an attempt to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said recently.
The MOEA will replace about 300,000 old streetlamps with the LED lamps in five municipalities and 14 counties and cities around Taiwan, which is expected to benefit the country’s LED industry, said Lin Ching-hai, a section chief of the MOEA’s Department of Industry Technology.
“We plan to spend NT$2 billion (US$66.6 million) this year to replace 30 percent of the mercury vapor streetlamps. The whole project will be complete in three to five years, with an additional budget of NT$6 billion,” Lin said.
If all of the 1.5 million traditional streetlamps in Taiwan, including mercury vapor lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps, are replaced by LED streetlamps, it will save over 40 per cent, or NT$800 million in electricity fees per year, according to the Bureau of Energy.
LED streetlamps have higher power efficiency, longer life and lower failure rate than traditional mercury vapor streetlamps, which can help save maintenance costs. However, the current prices of LED lamps are also five to eight times higher than those of mercury vapor lamps, the bureau said.
Prices of LED streetlamps can be reduced gradually with improvements in manufacturing technology, and the government will undertake more projects to promote LED streetlamps in the future, the bureau added.
