Several cities across the country are taking part in an energy
conservation program called "Demand Side Management Green
Lighting." The trial project is designed to partially solve the
nation's power shortage.
With subsidies from participating local governments and
international organizations, including the United Nations
Development Program and the Global Environment Fund, the project
helps consumers buy and use comparatively expensive energy-saving
fluorescent lamps, rather than former incandescent ones.
In Shijiazhuang, Hebei
Province, the project plans to promote 300,000 energy-saving
lamps this year and the local government plans to add 200,000 more.
In Shanghai,
the figure is 400,000 lamps.
China has been suffering a shortage of power for the past two
years. Electricity demand in Shanghai will reach 12.8 million
kilowatts this winter -- a shortage of 2 million kilowatts.
Facing the shortage, the government has promised to give power
priority to residential quarters and schools. Lighting accounts for
10 percent of Shanghai's total energy consumption.
China is the world's biggest lighting products producer, with
output reaching 7.4 billion lamps in 2001, including 1.3 billion
fluorescent ones. But because of low prices, most Chinese families
are still using incandescent lamps.
Experts said that fluorescent lamps, especially energy-saving
ones, have better light efficiency and are more durable compared
with incandescent ones.
A recent survey held in Shanghai shows 45 percent of lamps used
in the city are incandescent and another 15 percent are
non-energy-saving fluorescent ones.
"By 2010, if we could replace 20 million incandescent lamps with
energy-saving fluorescent ones in Shanghai, the power saved would
equal 400 million yuan of investment in power station
construction," said Chen Jinhai, a local official in charge of
energy-saving and environmental protection.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2004)