Going from giant project into brilliant ideas, China is definitely a leader. The government, in its struggle against climate change, has launched a 200 million yuan green energy pilot project.
This pilot project is expected to make solar power heat in-flight meals for an estimated 30, 000 passengers. It is a new approach with conventional solar technology.
This project is pioneered by Beijing municipal government. According to Li Zhen, assistant manager of equipment maintenance department at the Beijing Ariport Inflight Kitchen Ltd, this will expand the actual solar power generated at Beijing International Capital Airport. The latter is the one inaugurated for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Now the actual capacity of the solar energy is enough to heat 100 tonnes of water per day. This is sufficient to heat 18, 000 meals for airplanes. The water is enough to meet the daily demand according to Li.
The four million yuan invested in the solar power at the airport has made it possible to economize 260, 000 cubic meter of natural gas for year 2009, which is tantamount to 830, 000 yuan.
The solar power enables heating of airplane meals for Chinese airlines and various international airlines like Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
Vice-General Manager of Beijing “Sunda Solar Technology Co.”, Yan Kai, was in charge of the solar system installation at the airport and said that the system is only functional during spring to autumn.
Expansion plan for the future is already being proposed. The airport wants to develop a total water heating capacity of 315 tonnes per day through solar energy. This will according to Yan, make it possible to heat up to 30,000 airplane meals.
There are many more projects in the frontlines, Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform (BMCDR) is currently arranging for the construction of a 70 MW solar system before 2012. This will help the company to reach its set targets of having 5 percent of total energy consumption being provided from renewable sources of energy by 2012.
Casting an eye on other solar projects in Beijing, we have the sunny campus program. There will be solar billboards, solar lamps as well as solar scientific classrooms in 50 percent of the schools in Beijing by 2012.
The chief division of energy development at BMDRC, Gao Xinyu said that the project will not affect the academic activities. The project is considered simple and thus much obstruction is not going to be experienced.
These various green energy projects will increase awareness among youngsters and might further promote renewable technology in the future.
Source: China Daily
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.