LOW CARBON ECONOMY IN CITIES OF CHINA - POSSIBILITIES TO ESTIMATE THE POTENTIAL OF CO2-EMISSIONS

25.-28.11.2012 Asia conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association with BBS Workshop - Shanghai

LOW CARBON ECONOMY IN CITIES OF CHINA - POSSIBILITIES TO ESTIMATE THE POTENTIAL OF CO2-EMISSIONS

by Prof. Dr.-Ing H.-P. Leimer

University of Applied Sciences and Arts – HAWK Hildesheim, Germany

Hefei University, Anhui, China

Nanchang University, Jiangxi, China

BBS INSTITUT, Wolfenbuettel, Germany

 

ABSTRACT

Increasing urbanisation and climate change are one of the greatest challenges in the 21st Century. Many regions already face different negative impacts on cities such as growing local pollution, solid and liquid waste, traffic congestion and noise. A growing consumption of fossil fuels in cities leads to increasing CO2-emissions accelerating climate change. All over the world and also in China, cities are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. In that context, the concept of so called “low carbon cities” is promoted. Currently, 79 cities in China are considering low carbon concepts. To build a low carbon city is not an easy task as there are various barriers to be removed, such as financial, traditional and institutional barriers. Buildings belong to the most traditional and slow-changing innovative areas in industry. Further solutions are different for hot and warm climates than for cold climates. Due to a very fragmented and divided structure in smaller enterprises and in different areas, a holistic approach is hardly to get.

 

KEYWORDS

CDM, Thermal Energetic Simulation, CO2-Emissions, Energy Demand

 

INTRODUCTION[1]

The Chinese government decided to reduce the domestic emission reduction goals in the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) according to the goals of international emission reduction. The reduction of carbon intensity per unit of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in China is supposed to be reduced by 40-45% in 2020 against the intensity of 2005 levels.

The implementation of CDM[2] in the United Nations is in the beginning; therefore China has the chance to implement these systems as the first and the most important Nation worldwide in the building sector for LOW Carbon Cities. Germany, as one of the leaders in Low Carbon projects, has the chance, in collaboration with China, to increase the leadership in this working field and to become the master in the implementation of CDM projects in buildings worldwide. An excellent possibility to reach this goal is therefore the implementation on financial incentives by pCDM (Programmatic CDM) or other advanced methods with this project. In consequence of the development of the city planning in china during the next years and the increasing building industry, the Chinese government needs a set of guideline and reliable prediction methods for the regional LOW Carbon potentials and their application. This project offers China the possibility to receive a forecast of the Low Carbon potentials for their NEW LOW CARBON CITIES. With these tools China can influence and lead the market under the aim of LOW CARBON reduction during the next years to full fill the domestic emission reduction goals. The project will provide the methodology for the implementation of pCDM for the different climate regions in China as well as the guideline during the planning and realisation phase of Low Carbon Cities. Only with both approaches it will be possible to find solutions for the practical implementation for different climate situations (heating, cooling, heating and cooling) and for suitable requirements.

 

CALCULAION OF CO2 - EMISSION-REDUCTION FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT BUILDING TYPES - EXAMPLE FOR XIAMEN - CHINA

This chapter describes the basic approach to evaluate the energetic behaviour of buildings as well as to provide a calculation methodology for the CO2-emission reductions in the PoADDs (Program of Activities Design Documents). In order to detect and to investigate the CO2 saving potential in the different building types, the following steps of work are necessary:

  • Numeric simulation of the range of the energy demand from the selected building types for heating, cooling and dehumidification
  • Setting a baseline for each building type
  • Calculation of the energy saving-/ CO2 emissions saving potential of each building type
  • Forecast of the CO2 emissions saving potential for a whole pilot-region

In scope of this investigation, the available values from measurements of buildings/building categories will be compared to numeric calculations of energy requirement.