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China thirsts for energy-efficient buildings
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-04 12:33
Building construction and heating have been listed as China's top energy
user, which consumed approximately one-quarter of the total energy consumed by
the whole country, said Vice Minister of Construction Huang Wei.
Huang said at a recent national design conference that it constitutes an
urgent task for China to develop energy-efficient buildings despite the fact
that noticeable progress has been made in this regard.
Recent statistics show that there are 58.53 percent of
the buildings have been designed with an energy-saving concept, but only 23.25
percent were built into the energy-efficient type.
China has completed a total space of about 320 million square meters of
energy efficient buildings in the past decade and saved some 10.94 million tons
of standard coal.
Nevertheless, buildings will still possibly consume more energy in the years
ahead, acknowledged Huang.
Xu Jianzhong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said
currently electric power, diesel oil or coal are used most to heat buildings in
China, whereas all these energy resources can be replaced by solar energy or
terrestrial heat.
Economists forecast that by 2020, there will be about 30 billion square
meters of new building constructions in China. If all these buildings are
energy-efficient, it will help save some 335 million tons of standard coal, and
reduce 80 million kilowatts of electricity from air conditioning, which is equal
to 4.5 times the total hydro-electric output generated by the gigantic Three
Gorges Power Station on the mid reaches of the Yangtze River.
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