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Climate protection in China: Siemens expects increased demand for environmentally compatible infrastructure

China is facing major challenges: rapid economic growth, increasing urbanization and major events like the up-coming 2008 Olympics and Expo 2010 are creating a need for advanced infrastructure. The main focus is on the fields of energy and transportation. At the 2007 session of the People’s Congress, the Chinese government announced that conserving energy and raw materials, and protecting the environment were priority issues. Siemens sees this as a major opportunity. “The Siemens portfolio in China is ideally positioned for providing a modern, sustainable and environmentally compatible infrastructure,” said Dr. Richard Hausmann, President and CEO of Siemens Ltd., China. “We are optimistic that, by 2010, we will double the sales of our Regional Company in China from their current level of roughly €5 billion.”

The technical know-how to handle the climate problem already exists. “The levers are the efficient use of energy, the reduction of emissions, and renewable energy,” explained Hausmann. Urbanization and rapid economic growth present enormous challenges, as the Chinese megacities clearly demonstrate. The Chinese economy’s growing need for energy – experts predict an annual increase of up to 20 percent by 2020 – makes action imperative, since China currently obtains some 70 percent of its energy from coal. This results in huge emissions of harmful carbon dioxide (CO2). Today China burns 2.1 billion tons of coal a year, more than the U.S., the EU and Japan put together. The most populous country in the world will probably overtake the U.S. by 2009 as the largest producer of the greenhouse gas CO2.

“Coal-based power generation is only one of the fields where Siemens technology can substantially reduce the emission of gases harmful to the environment,” explained Hausmann. “All the Siemens Groups offer solutions for improving energy efficiency and sustainability which can help protect the climate. We expect a marked increase in investment in these areas in China,” continued Hausmann. The authorities in China are already using climate-friendly technologies to further improve the quality of life in the country, as shown by the following examples.

In the power generation sector, the Waigaoqiao II coal-fired power plant installed by Siemens in Shanghai, with a capacity of 2 x 900 megawatts (MW), is setting new standards. Thanks to advanced power plant technology based on so-called supercritical steam parameters (high steam temperatures and pressures), Waigaoqiao II is already cutting CO2 emissions by 2.1 million tons a year. The combined cycle power plant (CCPP) Huaneng in Shanghai is one of China’s most efficient power plants. The three units – each with a capacity of 400 MW – achieve an efficiency of 58 percent. This type plant combines a gas turbine and a steam turbine, thus offering the many benefits of both types. But efficient power transmission also has an important role to play in climate protection. In this sector, Siemens’ Power Transmission Group (PTD) has, among other things, signed a contract within the last year to provide efficient power distribution for Chong Qing, one of China’s up-and-coming industrial locations. The world’s largest conurbations, which is a center for the Chinese automobile and motorcycle industry, has been one of Siemens’ most important regions in China since 1995. Siemens’ Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) and the company’s Automation and Drives Group (A&D) are ensuring more efficient energy utilization in a large number of factories in the Chong Qing area.

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