Temperature-control tech creates greener life
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Xinhua, October 28, 2011
As global energy consumption rises, some countries are imposing ambitious emission-reduction targets. Among them, Denmark wants to generate the country's entire heat and electric supply from renewable sources by 2035 and cut its carbon emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by as early as 2020.
Danish green technology company Danfoss, a pioneer in temperature-control systems, believes there are big gains to be made in energy efficiency and emissions reductions when consumers are able to better regulate the temperature of the environment around them.
The company, headquartered in Nordborg, southern Denmark, typically produces components that improve energy efficiency of appliances used in a variety of industries, notably refrigeration, air-conditioning and heating.
Moreover, it finds ways to bring heating and cooling solutions to large numbers of people, and at lower cost to consumers and the environment.
These solutions are valuable to societies everywhere, not least in fast-growing emerging economies like China, where big populations aspire for higher living standards.
"We have the ambition of being a large company in China, and to do that, you have to offer something that Chinese people want," said Danfoss Chairman Joergen Clausen, referring to the company's energy-efficiency projects in China.
"In our case, we have good solutions which have been developed in Denmark and can be offered to China for reduction of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and saving of energy," he told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.
One of those solutions is district heating, a system for distributing heat that is produced in a centralized location like a power plant, and then sent to commercial and residential buildings for heating living spaces and water.
By combining electricity and heat production, district systems raise energy efficiency of power plants as they enjoy economy of scale in energy production. They typically produce the lowest carbon emissions of any large-scale power delivery system as well.
Danfoss has launched or implemented some 200 district heating projects in China, in partnership with city authorities. It singles out its work in Changchun city as an example, saying emissions will reduce by 10 percent for the whole city once the district system is put into operation.
The reverse solution, district cooling, works on the same principles as district heating, and uses lake and seawater as primary coolants, again reducing emissions and the use of ozone-depleting chemical refrigerants.
Given that China has committed to reduce energy intensity per unit of GDP by 16 percent and carbon intensity by 17 percent under its 12th five-year plan, district heating and cooling solutions would appear a rapid way of achieving these goals.
INNOVATING
In Denmark, buildings contribute around 40 percent of the country's total emissions, mostly owing to energy used in heating and cooling. So reducing energy consumption at home and work is a good start to going green.
Many products produced in Denmark already help do this, be it heat pumps, solar inverters, thermostats, or motion controls, which conserve energy or tap renewable solar and geo-thermal power.
And as it innovates for the next low-energy device, Danfoss has found a willing test-subject in the nearby town of Soenderborg.
Under a plan called Project Zero, Soenderborg aims to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2029.
"The beauty of Project Zero is that it constantly pushes for new technology," Danfoss CEO Niels B. Christiansen told Xinhua reporters during their recent visit to the company's headquarters.
An intelligent district-heating network, powered by energy from the sun, geo-thermal sources and by waste incineration, lies at the heart of Project Zero. But new, low-energy technologies can make it even more efficient, Christiansen said.
BUILT ON VALUES
Danfoss founder Mads Clausen, father of current Chairman Joergen Clausen, built the company on a sustainable vision: using fewer raw materials more productively. The result is a technology business that employs 24,000 people in 79 factories and offices in 22 countries.
Mads Clausen started the business in one-room, with just one employee, and one product, the thermostatic radiator valve, which he patented in 1943. The valve revolutionized temperature-control technology, and Danfoss has since produced 480 million such units.
"Providing solutions for energy efficiency for a range of industries has been in our DNA since birth," said Christiansen, reflecting on the company's founding product.
Danfoss is now developing the use of natural CO2, instead of synthetic refrigerants, in refrigeration and air-conditioning devices. The switch could save up to 60 percent reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent in food-retailers' refrigeration, the company says.
Meanwhile, Joergen Clausen has even bigger dreams of a clean-energy future. "In the long run we should become totally independent of fossil fuels and rely only on renewable energies," he mused.
It is a future in which he expects Danfoss to play a leading role.
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