Chicago (IL) – Yes, we know. Beijing and green are two words that just don’t go with each other. Even the Chinese government may not be able to manipulate reports and images coming out of the Olympic games enough to change the impression that Beijing is one of the dirtiest places on this planet. Beijing’s skies are smoggy, and cleaning them up might be nearly impossible, but you have to honor the effort, right? In fact, green companies across the globe have been receiving plenty of great business: China reportedly invested $12 billion in renewable energy last year.
You can say much about the current Olympic Games, but you certainly can’t call them green. Nevertheless, we thought it would be interesting to have a closer look at what green efforts, besides pulling cars off the road and equipping farmers outside with guns to shoot silver iodide into clouds (to force clouds to rain down early and outside of Beijing), have been made to make the 2008 Games more environmentally friendly.
Here is an overview of 10 cleantech deals that were struck during the preparation for China’s Olympic debut.
Canadian Solar is a photovoltaic cell and module developer. The company was responsible for supplying 66 kilowatt of building-integrated modules for the streetlights in Beijing. The lampposts provided by Canadian Solar light the Olympic Boulevard from the “Bird’s Nest” to the Olympic Square.
Atos Origin has had the responsibility of IT Management for the Olympics since the Salt Lake City games in 2002, and they have already been contracted to manage the IT for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. This year, Atos consolidated the number of data centers and servers and instituted their “Commentator” Information System, that is capable of delivering event results to broadcasters in a “remote mode”, thus allowing journalists to cover the games from their base locations, reducing the amount of press travel to the games.
China’s Suntech signed a $1.25 million contract with Beijing’s National Olympic Stadium for the installation of a 130 kilowatt photovoltaic system to be located at 12 entrances of the Bird’s Nest.
German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen provided the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and the games main press center with a fleet of thirty vehicles. The fleet contained a variety of different green technologies among which were small and more efficient TSI engines (running on premium gas), TDI diesel engines, Ecofuel engines (natural gas), DSG dual-clutch transmissions (an efficient automatic transmission), and high efficiency diesel cars called Blue Motion (which, among others, come with thinner tires and have a reduced drag coefficient).
LED veteran Cree provided the Olympics with a 440,000 XLamp LED display on the Beijing National Aquatics Centre which has also been deemed “the Water Cube”. The committee apparently was so impressed with the display that they asked the company to provide a similar installation for the Bird’s Nest main arena. Cree’s LED technology is also seen throughout the Olympic complex.
GE provided the Olympic Games with different water, energy and infrastructure services at 37 Olympic locations, such as the Forbidden City. The Olympic venues are partially powered with a total of 130 GE 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. 100 of the turbines are located at the Shangyi Wind Power Farm Project; the remaining 30 are located at the Zhangbei Wind Power Farm Project. LEDs operated on solar power from GE illuminate the Fengtai Softball Field, and the Olympics Committee’s headquarters are lit up by standard LEDs. The National Stadium has a GE Zeeweed nanofiltration membrane rainwater recycling system.
Echelon's LonWorks lighting control system has been installed in the Olympic Village. It operates by managing the lights for 23,000 athletes that are currently housed in more than 40 buildings. The system is capable of managing the apartment, public area, parking lot, and exterior installation lightings. The system works to conserve energy by monitoring the light output and automatically dimming or shutting off lights when necessary.
The Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Company is road testing its latest two prototype buses in Beijing during the Olympic games. These buses were designed and built in a partnership with aluminum giant Alcoa. Utilizing aluminum bodies, the weight of the buses was reduced by 15 to 20%, according to Alcoa, thus boosting the fuel efficiency of the vehicles. The buses feature Alcoa’s spaceframe technology, which was developed with the help of Ferrari.
Chinese solar company ET Solar installed an 11-kilowatt tracking PV system at the Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball Coliseum. The system is capable of swiveling across 270 degrees, thus boosting the energy output by 35%, according to the company.
Beijing Bus Company Feng Xingfu operates 50 lithium-battery powered buses for the shuttling of both media and athletes between the villages and the Olympic Games and events. The busses are part of a purchase plan that involves a total of 2810 new environmentally sound buses, including 900 diesel-powered vehicles that meet the Euro-IV emission standard and 250 vehicles that are powered by natural gas.
Despite all the environmental concerns coming out of Beijing, all of the cleantech companies involved in the 2008 Olympic Games are making a stride towards the reduction of the overall carbon footprint of the event – which is good news.
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