Delta Electronics Foundation announces Taiwan's first 'net-zero' energy campus at UN climate meeting

Lima, Dec. 12, 2014 – The Delta Electronics Foundation, at the United Nations climate meeting in Lima, Peru, announced that the Namasia Elementary School, which they helped rebuild after typhoon Morakot in 2009, will achieve 'net-zero' energy consumption for the whole campus by the middle of next year. It will be the first of its kind in Taiwan, a green building that functions both as a school and as a disaster shelter for the indigenous community of 300 people for up to a week.

Delta co-hosted a side event with the World Resources Institute and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation at the United Nations climate meeting in Lima, Peru on the 11th of December. The theme of the event was 'Integrated Climate Risk Management for a Resilient World', with an emphasis on mountainous nations. Delta presented its successful rebuilding of Namasia, highlighting the energy-saving architectural designs that were adopted. The campus implemented a passive design where natural lighting and ventilation is utilized to save energy. 10kWp of solar panels were installed when Namasia was launched. It achieved an EUI of 6.7kWh/m2-yr in 2013, which qualified Namasia to become the most energy efficient school in Taiwan. This June, Delta added an additional 12kWp of solar panels and anticipates the school will achieve 'net-zero' energy consumption by the middle of next year.

Thirteen other schools faced similar damage from the same typhoon in 2009. Almost all were covered by massive landslides from the 2,300 mm of rain in 48 hours. Delta's adoption and rebuilding of Namasia was a challenging responsibility with cooperation from numerous stakeholders, including but not limited to the central government, local NGOs, geological experts and green architects. The project finally came to fruition when it was launched three years later, in 2012 – the new campus is now a green ark that safeguards the entire village of 300 people for up to a week, in the most remote mountainous area of Taiwan.

The founder and chairman of the Delta Electronics Foundation, Bruce Cheng, said that he is delighted to hear that international organizations affirm Delta's involvement and contributions in the rebuilding of Namasia and enhancing the safety of the indigenous people who live in this vulnerable area. He hopes more policymakers around the world will see Taiwan's efforts via the side event and will continue to cooperate with climate experts to mitigate the growing number of extreme weather events in the warming world.

At the side event of the UN Climate Meeting, many of the panelists were impressed by the Namasia Elementary School case. The Dutch delegation representative, Ms. Annika Fawcett said, "As evidenced by the Delta Foundation's Namasia reconstruction work, communication between different stakeholders is critically important. In the Netherlands, we are very conscious of incorporating the voices of all stakeholders, and we have made adaptation measures an integral part of our national policy." James Close, the director of Climate Change Group at the World Bank was also inspired by Delta's Namasia achievements, and said that the World Bank is very supportive of such adaptation measures, and currently has several ongoing building resiliency projects.