Photo: Svend-Erik Mikkelsen/COWI

Beijing must learn to conserve energy and heat 

The people of Beijing must learn to cut back on their consumption of heat and energy, in the interests of a cleaner environment. A major contract means that COWI will help to identify and implement energy conservation measures.
For the next three years, Beijing's Heating Energy Conservation Centre will be assisted by COWI, who will teach the city to use heating energy in a more efficient manner. The chief aim of the Beijing Heating Energy Conservation Project, which is funded by the World Bank, is to reduce the burning of coal and thereby ensure cleaner air and purer water for the city.

"The campaign will focus primarily on the building sector, because so much can be achieved by providing more efficient means of consuming energy for heating residential and commercial property, while at the same time securing enormous environmental and financial benefit," explains Johnny Iversen, a M.Sc. with COWI.

Knowledge database with opportunities

One of COWI's central tasks will be to support the development of the energy centre as an institution. This will include drawing up a catalogue of conservation opportunities and strategies which must first be formulated and then implemented.

"The plan is to formulate a type of best practise, which will then be transferred to a knowledge database. This database will cover the whole chain, from heat production plants through distribution to the end user, also including building services and building standards," says Johnny Iversen.

Photo: Svend-Erik Mikkelsen/COWI


Energy audit and pilot projects

In addition to creating the database, the remit includes developing and implementing procedures for a series of energy audits, as part of a strategy for identifying inadequacies and inappropriate conditions which may be remedied by energy conservation measures.

And, finally, COWI is to showcase these conservation measures through a series of pilot and demonstration projects, whose aim is to promote the work of the energy centre.

"The various initiatives will run in parallel and will complement each other, with the common purpose of raising awareness both of the need for reducing energy consumption and of the means of doing so. Given an improved level of awareness, it will be easier to implement the proposed measures," says Johnny Iversen.

By: Line Steenberg, jaje@cowi.com
Published: 13.07.05