The National Housing Industrialization Base Report praised the efforts of Shangdong Province in low-carbon housing construction. At present, Shandong has already had 26 low-carbon housing projects, and more than 7.8 million square meters of buildings were included in the province’s National Housing Pilot Project in Environmentally Friendly Energy.

Liu Zhifeng, chairman of the China Real Estate Association, said about 1.8 billion to 2 billion square meters of new building occurs every year in China, and housing makes up 70 percent of those numbers. The Chinese government is actively promoting the integration of solar energy and construction to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

According to experts, about 30 percent of China's current usage derives from buildings. The Chinese construction industry is developing more energy-saving, or low-carbon, buildings.

Zhe Wenliang, vice manager of Linuo Paradigma Solar Energy, said that the company will actively promote low-carbon buildings and integrate solar energy use into architectural designs. Wen said Linuo Paradigma has built 34 million square meters of buildings integrated with energy-saving designs. Wen said this is equivalent to a medium-sized city which, using solar energy, can save 4 million tons of standard coal and reduce 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Zheng Xiaoguang, chairman of the Shandong Solar Energy Industry Association said the number of enterprises related to the solar industry in Shandong province reached 523 in 2009, with revenues of 44 billion yuan, up 42 percent. The construction industry comprises a large proportion of solar energy consumption.

Nearly 40 billion square meters of buildings in China are high-energy consumers. Heating and power consumption per unit area is equivalent to double or triple that of developed countries with similar climate conditions. However, in China, nearly 2 billion square meters of new buildings are constructed every year, and more than 95 percent are huge energy consumers.

At present, 100 percent of new multi-story residential buildings in the downtown area of Yantai city use solar water heaters, while more than 25 percent of high-rise buildings use solar water heaters. About 500 square meters of the city's residential area use solar energy, saving about 25 million kilowatts of power each year.

By Dai Yan (China Daily Shandong Bureau)

Editor: Li Jing