Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) chairman Yancey Hai (海英俊) on Sunday called on the government to encourage the public to conserve electricity by transforming buildings into “green” buildings.

“Conserving electricity is the easiest and the fastest solution to solve Taiwan’s constrained power supply issue, compared with spending a long time to build new power generators,” Hai told reporters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Delta Green Building Exhibition at the Pier-2 Art Center in Kaohsiung.

The government aims to increase the nation’s electricity reserve margin from less than 10 percent to 22 percent by 2025, Hai said.

Natural gas is to contribute 50 percent of total energy and renewable energy is to account for 20 percent by that time, he said, citing the Ministry of Economic Affair’s goal.

Building a third natural gas terminal in northern Taiwan or constructing offshore wind farms in southern Taiwan would need to go through time-consuming environmental impact assessments, Hai said.

However, turning residential and commercial buildings into green buildings with carefully selected building materials and power management solutions could efficiently conserve electricity, Hai said.

Hai said a certified green building could on average decrease power consumption by 30 percent, adding that Delta’s headquarters in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) has decreased electricity consumption by more than 30 percent.

The building consumes about 1.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year, compared with 3 million kWh before it was converted into a green building, Hai said.

Residential properties do not need to be entirely turned into a certified green buildings, but a few changes could make a difference, such as installing LEDs and placing shades on the windows to lower the indoor temperature, Hai said.

“Imagine the huge difference in power reserve if every residential and commercial building could save 10 percent of energy use per year,” Hai said.

Delta, the nation’s leading power and thermal management solutions provider, converted its manufacturing plant in Tainan into a certified green factory in 2006, which was a first both for the company and the nation.

The company has built 25 certified green buildings in Taiwan, the US, India and China in the past 11 years, including Namasia Ming Chuan Elementary School (那瑪夏民權國小) in Kaohsiung that Delta helped rebuild after it was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.

The Delta Green Building Exhibition, which is part of this year’s EcoMobility World Festival and Congress hosted by the Kaohsiung City Government, illustrates Delta’s technologies in green buildings and eco-friendly transportation solutions.

Delta also unveiled its super high-brightness 8K-resolution projector at the exhibition for the first time.

The projector was used at the exhibition to play a 8K-resolution short documentary about Taiwan’s water resources that was produced in collaboration with Japan’s NHK Enterprises Inc.