by Brianna Crandall — October 19, 2016 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has just announced nine exemplary energy performance contracting pilot projects that bring together U.S. and Chinese companies to boost the energy efficiency of buildings in China and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use. A combination of clean energy retrofits and upgrades is projected to save the selected facilities on energy costs over the lifetime of the contracts by making them more energy efficient.
The savings on utility bills created through the facility upgrades will be used to pay for the projects over the terms of the contracts, and the improved facilities will continue to save money and energy after the contract terms have ended. The new projects support the efforts of both countries to work together to address climate change as recently formalized under the COP21 Paris Agreement.
China and the United States have years of experience in energy performance contracting and have a tremendous opportunity to reduce energy and water use and cut greenhouse gas emissions, notes DOE. The American companies partnering with Chinese firms will benefit by forging new partnerships to market their clean energy products and gain additional experience operating in China.
DOE and China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) are working together, under the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group, to scale up these contracting opportunities by promoting multiple technology retrofits, new contract models, third-party financing, and stronger measurement and verification protocols.
DOE announced the projects at the 7th annual U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Forum (EEF) in Beijing, organized by NDRC and DOE, which enables assessment of the progress of joint activities under the U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Action Plan. The EEF has facilitated 30 institutional or commercial partnerships resulting in millions of dollars of trade and investment since the first event in 2010.
The U.S.-China Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) pilot projects were formally recognized by NDRC and DOE for using a combination of innovative financing models, standard measurement and verification protocols, integrated systems approaches, and achieving at least 20 percent energy savings building-wide or at least 1,000 tonne coal equivalent (TCE) across retrofitted systems in industrial facilities.
The companies involved in the new projects are:
- General Electric and Tongyu Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.
- General Electric and Ningbo Harmony
- Trane, Otis, and Yantai Dongfang Energy Technology
- Carrier and China Aviation International Construction and Investment
- Archimedes Controls Corporation and Shenzhen CNSECOM Technology Co., Ltd
- Trane and China Southern Power Grid Synthesis Energy
- Johnson Controls Inc. and China Southern Power Grid Synthesis Energy
- Johnson Controls Inc. and Century Microentropy Technology
- Boehmer, Honeywell and Beijing KRSD Heating Investment
For more details on the projects, see the announcement online.
