Energy-saving potential analysis and assessment on land transport of Taiwan

•An energy intensity database for all kinds of land transportation.•A master plan and blueprint for the development of Taiwan’s green transport infrastructure.•The energy-saving scale is up to 25.9% significantly in manned transport sector.•Rail transport is the most effective and economical energy-saving strategy.

Among the various research institutes in Taiwan, the overall transportation energy consumptions and energy saving statistics are quite in the lack. This study first of all collects the transportation data from Statistics Department and Institute of Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for the purpose of application research. Meanwhile, energy consumption factors are retrieved from the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economy and relevant papers; thereby, the energy consumptions of passenger and freight vehicles are analyzed statistically. Furthermore, the total energy consumption of current transportation is calculated. The calculation results show that the transportation capacity and energy intensity of passenger cars are the largest ones in the all land vehicles. Therefore, the passenger cars have the greatest potential for energy saving. Finally, this study sums up the implementation of energy-saving strategies, including the application of BAT (Best Available Technologies) and the augment of public transportation infrastructure. Through scenario analysis, the results of this study show that the national GHG abatement goal in 2025 (i.e., 5.2 Mt-CO2e) is fulfilled. Wherein, the energy-saving is 2931 MKLOE with reduction rate of 27%, or 2.43% in national scale, while the equivalence of GHG abatement is 5.91 Mt-CO2e, or 2.40% in national scale.