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During the Olympic Games, China is going to showcase a strong mixture of renewable energy and energy efficiency characteristics. More than one quarter of all energy consumed at Olympic locales will come from renewable sources, including solar energy, which will yield nearly 8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power for Olympic facilities and wind power, which will provide 20% of the power requirements of the Olympic locales.

Suntech Power of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province provided the 130 kW solar system for the Olympic Stadium, also known as the “Bird’s Nest.” In addition, Canadian Solar provided 66 kilowatts (kW) of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) for the lampposts along Olympic Boulevard.

The wind energy facility that will provide power to the Olympic venues in Beijing is Beijing’s first; it is made up of 43 wind turbines (each 1.5 megawatts (MW)) developed and manufactured by a Chinese wind turbine company.

The solar power hot water system that is been installed in the Olympic Village is designed to allow for adequate hot water to satisfy the washing needs of the Olympics’ 12,000 athletes, trainers and other personnel, and to supply drinkable water.

Eighty to ninety percent of the streetlights in the vicinity of Olympic venues will be solar-powered streetlights. A different 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 National Aquatics Center, known as the “Water Cube”, was constructed to allow the roof and the outer surfaces of the building to collect and reprocess 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 outstanding example is the high efficiency thermal polymer skin encasing the National Aquatics Center, that greatly lessens 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 unconventional 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 energy technology to operate the air conditioning system in summer, provide heat in the fall and winter and supply hot water year-around; 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 employs a seawater-source heat pump technology.

As is so often the case in China, the Summer Olympics in Beijing present two conflicting views of China’s environmental and energy stewardship.

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