Premier Wu Den-yih praised AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) Saturday for its green efforts, saying the company has fulfilled its social responsibility by sticking to environmental sustainability and carbon reduction goals. Wu made the comments during a visit to AUO's Taichung operations, at an 8.5 generation flat panel plant that has been certified as a gold-level building by the U.S. Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). It is the only thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) plant in the world to have obtained that certification. According to AUO Chairman K.Y. Lee, adopting the LEED green architecture standards has significantly improved water and electricity conservation at the plant and reduced waste. For example, Lee said, the plant consumes 75 percent less water than others of its kind because up to 90 percent of the waste water there can be reused. David Su, president of Lexter Electronics Corp., a subsidiary of AUO, said the plant currently uses 25,000 four-foot light emitting diode (LED) lamps produced by his company, which consume 70 percent less electricity and last 15 times longer than older types of bulbs. Even with the lights on around the clock, the plant's monthly electricity bill is NT$1.5 million lower than if it was using traditional lamps, Su said. Also during the visit, Wu was briefed on AUO's emerging presence in the renewable energy sector, including the photovoltaics industry. AUO entered the photovoltaics industry in 2008 and is working as a vertical integrator for solar energy solutions. The company is also planning to set up solar panels, with installed capacity of 10 megawatts, on the roofs of its various plants in Taichung, which would make the building-based solar power generation project the biggest in Taiwan. 