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Overview

Overview

While daunting, the challenge of meeting China's energy needs presents a wealth of opportunities, particularly in meeting demand through improved energy efficiency.

The China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is committed to understanding those opportunities, and to exploring their implications for policy and business. We work collaboratively with energy researchers, suppliers, regulators, and consumers in China and elsewhere to better understand the dynamics of energy use in China, to develop and enhance the capabilities of Chinese institutions that promote energy efficiency, and to create links between Chinese and international institutions.

Industry

LBNL's China Energy Group works to gain an in-depth understanding of China's industrial sector which is responsible for the majority of energy consumption in China. Current work includes providing technical assistance to the Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises program, benchmarking China's major energy-consuming industries to world best practices, examining energy efficiency trends in China's steel and cement industries, implementing voluntary energy efficiency agreements in various industries, and developing a multi-year program for standards and for optimizing the industrial motor systems in China. Past work has included a comprehensive study of China's oil refining sector.

Buildings and Construction

In addition to building equipment standards and labeling, we have also had a long-standing program to assist China in developing building energy codes. China faces the same complexity as the US in having a number of distinct climate zones. Historically, concern has only been with codes within the heating zone, although this focus has expanded.

Objectives of China's building energy codes are at least 50% energy savings at less than a 10% cost increase compared to pre-existing buildings. Increasing technical sophistication and flexibility allow for a shift from steady-state calculations to computer simulations, and from rigid requirements to a choice of simple prescriptive and custom energy budget methods. Building codes in China are developed by Code Compilation Committees with increasing industry involvement. They undergo public review and approval, before adoption by the Ministry of Construction.