Energy experts are calling for efforts to promote the use of power-conserving lamps to help ease big disparities between power supply and demand in China.

"In order to solve the energy issue, more efforts need to be put into exploring different energies, as well as saving power," said Lu Wenbin, an official from the environment and resources department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China Daily reported Friday.

"We should further promote the country's energy conservation policy and strengthen people's awareness," Lu said at a recent forum on "green" lighting and energy conservation.

He said that the NDRC is working on a list of high-efficiency, energy-saving products and will implement policies encouraging the use of such products.

As lighting products are big electricity consumers in China, promotion of high-efficiency lamps will bring great economic and social benefits, he said.

Statistics show that at present, lighting consumes 12 per cent of all electricity generated in the country.

It is estimated that, in general, energy-efficient lamps can save 60 to 80 per cent more power than their conventional counterparts, while their lifespan is five times longer than ordinary lamps.

The use of efficient lighting products would also reduce both the consumption of raw materials and the amount of waste generated.

The wide use of efficient lamps is beneficial to environment protection, and will help reduce carbon and other emissions, as 80 per cent of the power supply in China is generated by coal.

"Using efficient lighting and controls is an effective way to help prevent serious blackouts happening in China," says David B. Goldstein, an expert on green lighting from the Natural Resources Defence Council.

He said lighting in public buildings accounts for 15 to 25 per cent of peak power demand.

Therefore, better controls and efficient lighting could cut peak power demands further.

To promote energy conservation in lighting, the former State Economic and Trade Commission initiated the China Green Lights Programme in early 1996.

The programme has achieved positive results, says Liu Hong from the project management office.

From 1996 to 2000, over 1.4 billion high-efficiency lighting products were installed, saving accumulative electricity of 25.7 billion kilowatt-hours, equal to reductions of 4.8 million kilowatts of installed capacity and more than 40 billion yuan (US$48.3 billion) investment in power construction.

In 2001, the commission (the current NDRC), together with the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility, continued to promote the programme.

The overall goal of the project is to reduce lighting energy use in the country by 10 per cent by the year 2010, said Liu.

According to the anticipated objective, through the implementation of the project, a total of 103.2 billion kilowatts of power could be saved and discharge of carbon dioxide will be reduced by 75 million tons from 2001 to 2010.

Statistics show that by the year 2003, the project had promoted a total energy conservation of 9.98 billion kilowatts, equivalent to a reduction of 2.85 million tons of carbon emissions.

In addition to promoting energy saving in China, the project also aims to help manufacturers improve the quality of efficient lighting products, as China now is a world-leading producer of lighting products, Liu said.

The country has more than 8,000 lighting products manufacturers, which produced more than 90 billion yuan (US$10.9 billion) worth of products last year.

It exported US$5.4 billion of lighting products to more than 150 countries and regions.

"In this sense, the implementation of the project will not only benefit China itself but lighting efficiency worldwide," said Liu.

Production of efficient lamps has, in recent years, increased in China.

Source: China Daily