Research on Eco-friendly Solar Energy Generation in Taoyuan Pond

The Taoyuan ponds are a unique landscape developed by the ancestors of the Taoyuan area, Taiwan. Since the city is a terraced terrain, and the slope of terrain descends from the southeast to the northwest, which is not in favor of water flow to the farmland. Due to the climate and topography reasons, the ponds were built and functioning as water storage and irrigation apart from flood control. In recent years, the policy of the central government in Taiwan has gradually reduced nuclear energy dependency rate. Many nuclear plant fuel tanks start to be shut down due to the promotion of green energy projects such as solar panels and other natural energy systems mostly in response to preserve more eco-friendly environments. 17 larger ponds in Taoyuan are planned to install the water-based solar facilities. It is estimated that they will be over 10% of the ponds will be covered by the solar panels, and the ponds will be covered about half of its water area with those panels. This study discusses the local contexts and the relationship with the development of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in term of costs and benefits of the installations on the ponds. It also analyses the development of solar PV in ponds and its follow-up recommendations based on field surveys of photovoltaic ponds which include the coverage, base location, installation capacity, negative impacts on the ecology, environment, and landscape issues. The results show that to make this infrastructure eco-friendly, Department of irrigation, engineering, and solar photovoltaic system provider should avoid the critical wetlands and endemic bird habitats' ways of movement are overly intruded. Moreover, the water coverage of the ponds should be controlled under 30%, and the floating devices should not cause the negative impacts on the environment of the landscape. So the renewable energy supply installations will have a better chance to compromise and live up with the sustainable development of Taoyuan ponds. The result will indicate the suggestions how to establish a complete decree to reduce the damages to the environment but the local residents still enjoy the benefits of the new technology provided.