ENERGY EFFICIENT BLDGS IN ICY CHINA

In China’s Icy North, Outfitting Buildings to Save Energy
Te-Ping Chen, January 7, 2011 (National Geographic)

"…[In] China’s northeast, where winter temperatures plummet to -40ºF (-42º C), cities are getting serious about giving old, drafty buildings a face-lift. Last year, Harbin spent $1.1 million to retrofit 21 million square feet (2 million square meters) of residential buildings—adding five new layers of wall insulation, as well as better windows and roofing…

"Beijing’s snarled traffic and the smokestacks smoldering over the Pearl River Delta may be the most iconic images of China’s environmental woes…But these days, policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to the buildings of China’s industrial northeast, as well. This is the country’s frigid rust belt, where cold fronts roll in directly from Siberia’s frozen tundra to the north, and residences need to be heated six months out of the year."

Harbin's Ice Festival (from Nat'l Geographic - click to enlarge)

"…[In] the developed world, fully 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from heating, cooling, and powering buildings. Already in China, nearly 30 percent of the country’s energy is absorbed by its building sector—a figure that has tripled within three decades, and growing…In 2006, as part of the country’s most recent five-year plan, China pledged to reduce overall energy intensity by 20 percent…[L]ocal officials were scrambling to meet [that] by the end of 2010—shuttering factories and even briefly powering down hospitals…But if China does hit its 20 percent target, it won’t be thanks to improvements to the building sector, said Mark Levine, head of the China Energy Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory….National subsidies, he noted, have been too slim to inspire much effort at the municipal level, where cities have typically used the funds to install meters instead of embarking on more costly retrofits.

"But there have been a few notable exceptions, including Harbin, the largest city and capital of Heilongjiang province, with a population of nearly 10 million, a place often known as “Ice City.” Officials in Harbin project that the retrofitting drive of 2010 will increase energy efficiency in affected areas by 50 percent. Other cities also have embarked on efforts to make buildings more energy efficient, like Qingdao in the eastern Shandong province and Lanzhou (map), capital of Gansu province in the northwest. And across China, there has been one improvement that officials are quick to note: compliance with existing building codes has increased to at least 98 percent…"

click to enlarge

"…[But] living standards are increasing…China is adding new buildings at a clip of 22 billion new square feet (2 billion new square meters) a year—which means more concrete being poured, more steel being manufactured, and additional mass consumption of energy. At the same time, residents these days expect more air conditioning, lighting, and heat than ever before. Accordingly, even a building at code today can still use energy in excess of its leaky, poorly insulated predecessors…[Also,] China’s heating sector is riddled with inefficiencies, including pricing systems that create no incentive to conserve…

"Heating price reform—already under way in certain regions—and better funding for retrofitting efforts will likely be a priority in the next five-year plan, said Levine. What’s less clear, he said, is whether China’s central planners can effectively push the country beyond the heavy, energy-intensive industry that’s propelled it forward…"