China's Renewable Energy Aspirations  

Well, the Olympics have started (or at least yet another over-the-top opening ceremony has), so its time for a China post. Renewable Energy World has a look at the greening of the Olympic facilities - Beijing Olympics Show China's Renewable Energy Aspirations.

From the standpoint of energy and the environment, the Summer Olympics in Beijing, a city of 15 million people, pose a stark juxtaposition of the reality of China today and the vision of its future: a China characterized by wise environmental and energy stewardship.

In recent weeks, as the world's attention has turned to the Summer Olympics in China, the media has published a steady stream of stories about the unpleasant environment that the Olympic athletes will face in China: algae blooms in the waters off of Qingdao that threaten the sailing competitions and smog and particulate matter-laden skies over Beijing, forcing some teams to train away from Beijing in advance of their competitions and forcing coaches to provide their athletes with optional breathing masks to provide some measure of protection. ...

The design and operation of the Olympic Village and Olympic venues (all of the Olympic buildings total nearly 2 million square meters) are a statement of the central government's vision of a new China powered by renewable energy and driven by conservation and environmental protection; the Olympics are putting these aspirations on display.

During the Olympics, China will showcase a robust assortment of renewable energy and energy efficiency features. More than one quarter of all energy consumed at Olympic venues will come from renewable sources, including solar power, which will generate nearly 8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power for Olympic facilities and wind power, which will provide 20% of the power needs of the Olympic venues.

Suntech Power of Wuxi, Zhejiang Province provided the 130 kW solar system for the Olympic Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest." In addition, Canadian Solar provided 66 megawatts (MW) of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) for the lampposts along Olympic Boulevard.

The wind farm that will supply power to the Olympic venues in Beijing is Beijing's first; it is comprised of 43 wind turbines (each 1.5 MW) developed and manufactured by a Chinese wind turbine company.

The solar energy hot water system that has been installed in the Olympic Village is designed to provide sufficient hot water to satisfy the washing needs of the Olympics' 12,000 athletes, trainers and other personnel, and to provide potable water.

Eighty to ninety percent of the streetlights in the vicinity of Olympic venues will be solar-powered streetlights. Another system that is being displayed at the Olympics is a new solar technology known as the SolarWall hybrid PV/thermal system that produces both electricity and heat.

the The National Aquatics Center — known as the "Water Cube" — was built to allow the roof and the outer surfaces of the building to collect and recycle as much as 140,000 tons per year (tpy) of rainwater, clean water and pool water. Advanced building techniques are said to allow Olympics venues to save 50% or more of the energy consumed by typical buildings. One prominent example is the high efficiency thermal polymer skin encasing the National Aquatics Center, that greatly decreases energy consumption at that Olympic venue.

More than 500,000 trees were planted in and around Olympic venues and on the Olympic green. There will be 500 alternative energy vehicles operating within the Olympic Village and some of the fans that attend the Olympic competitions in Beijing may ride to the events in one of the 1000 new Beijing public transportation vehicles that run on biodiesel.

The renewable energy vehicles being used at the Olympics include 20 hydrogen fuel cell, 55 electric and 25 hybrid passenger vehicles. In Qingdao, the Olympic Sailing Center, which was constructed at a cost of more than 11 million Yuan [US $1.6 million], uses solar power technology to operate the air conditioning system in summer, provide heat in the fall and winter and supply hot water year round; the system will save an estimated 900,000 kWh and 700,000 Yuan [US $102,000] each year, allowing for a 15-year recovery of the investment in that Olympic facility. The Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center also utilizes a seawater-source heat pump technology.

As is so often the case in China, the Summer Olympics in Beijing present two contradictory views of China's environmental and energy stewardship. Will China's future development realize the promise of the enlightened environmental and energy infrastructure now on display at the Olympic venues or will the Olympic Village turn out to have been just a Potemkin Village? Stay tuned.

We’ll be seeing plenty of China on our TV screens in the next little while, as long they don’t give us too many long shots. No matter how spectacular the Olympic opening ceremony, if we can see it, I think the abiding image from the Games for me will be the astonishing soup of pollution. I can’t wrap my mind around the kind of hubris and single-minded neglect that could produce such a mess. Rick Birch talking on local radio said the Chinese Government had assured everyone a couple of years ago that the weather would be fine for the opening ceremony, the weather apparently being subject to government will. Hence no need for a plan B in case it rains. Rick says you always have a plan B in case it rains, but not this time.

Similarly, we are assured that the atmosphere would be OK. China has gone to enormous lengths to showcase these games. I understand they have temporarily diverted water about 150k to make sure the city has enough to the deprivation of other parts of the country. But the air pollution has not conformed with government requirements. Hence the Australian team cancelled its traditional outdoor barbecue, apparently because the air might affect the meat!

The Australian Financial Review last Friday in their Review section republished Jacques Leslie’s cover story in the February edition of Mother Jones entitled The Last Empire: China’s Pollution Problem Goes Global. It’s over 9000 words, but it’s well worth a look.

Leslie tells of Mao’s assault on the environment when he launched the “backyard furnace” campaign. Some 90 million peasants set up mini steel smelters stripping 10% of China’s trees within a few months to fire them in order to produce unusable steel. Mao also launched the “Kill the Four Pests Campaign” resulting in the mass killing of sparrows followed by a great locust plague. The consequent harvest failure and famine saw between 30 and 50 million Chinese die, according to Leslie.

Yet the Mao era’s ecological devastation pales next to that of China’s current industrialization. A fourth of the country is now desert. More than three-fourths of its forests have disappeared. Acid rain falls on a third of China’s landmass, tainting soil, water, and food. Excessive use of groundwater has caused land to sink in at least 96 Chinese cities, producing an estimated $12.9 billion in economic losses in Shanghai alone. Each year, uncontrollable underground fires, sometimes triggered by lightning and mining accidents, consume 200 million tons of coal, contributing massively to global warming. A miasma of lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other elements of coal-burning and car exhaust hovers over most Chinese cities; of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, 16 are Chinese.

The government estimates that 400,000 people die prematurely from respiratory illnesses each year, and health care costs for premature death and disability related to air pollution is estimated at up to 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Four-fifths of the length of China’s rivers are too polluted for fish. Half the population—600 or 700 million people—drinks water contaminated with animal and human waste. Into Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, the nation annually dumps a billion tons of untreated sewage; some scientists fear the river will die within a few years. Drained by cities and factories all over northern China, the Yellow River, whose cataclysmic floods earned it a reputation as the world’s most dangerous natural feature, now flows to its mouth feebly, if at all. China generates a third of the world’s garbage, most of which goes untreated. Meanwhile, roughly 70 percent of the world’s discarded computers and electronic equipment ends up in China, where it is scavenged for usable parts and then abandoned, polluting soil and groundwater with toxic metals.

Robert Merkel told us last year of an environmental disaster that killed 750,000 Chinese. The Chinese government persuaded the World Bank to suppress the story because it could cause social unrest. It seems their fears were justified.