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New energy-saving building area of 1.44 billion square meters, cumulative energy-saving building area of 8.8 billion square meters, completed building energy-saving renovation area of 224 million square meters; the role of market mechanisms is not obvious, and investment in building energy-saving funds is insufficient... The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently issued a notice on the 2013 national inspection of building energy efficiency in the housing and urban-rural construction sector. The building energy efficiency work in 2013 has achieved positive results, but problems remain.

Numbers Highlight Achievements

The reporter learned that in 2013, new buildings in urban areas nationwide fully implemented mandatory energy-saving standards, with an additional energy-saving building area of 1.44 billion square meters, which can create an energy-saving capacity of 13 million tons of standard coal. The northern heating region, the hot summer and cold winter region, and the hot summer and warm winter region fully implemented higher-level energy-saving design standards, further improving the energy-saving level of new buildings. The cumulative energy-saving building area in urban areas nationwide reached 8.8 billion square meters, accounting for about 30% of urban civil building area.

As of the end of 2013, in terms of energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings, various regions completed a total renovation area of 224 million square meters, and the cumulative renovation area in the first three years of the "12th Five-Year Plan" reached 620 million square meters. The energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter region has been launched, with a total renovation area of 11.75 million square meters completed in 2013. In terms of the construction of the public building energy consumption supervision system, more than 10,000 public buildings have been energy-audited nationwide, energy consumption information of nearly 9,000 buildings has been disclosed, and dynamic energy consumption monitoring has been conducted for more than 5,000 buildings. Pilot projects for dynamic energy consumption monitoring platforms have been carried out in 33 provinces and cities. In terms of renewable energy building applications, the application area of solar thermal energy in urban areas nationwide is 2.7 billion square meters, and the application area of shallow geothermal energy is 400 million square meters. The overall start rate of renewable energy building application demonstration city and county projects reached 81%, and the completion rate was 51%.

Guided by the goal of Beautiful China, green buildings have made great strides in the past year.

In addition to the national "Green Building Action Plan" and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's comprehensive launch of green affordable housing construction, Shandong, Hunan, Zhejiang and other provinces have issued local green building action implementation plans in the name of the provincial government. As of the end of 2013, a total of 1,446 projects nationwide had obtained green building evaluation labels, with a building area of more than 160 million square meters, of which 704 projects obtained green building evaluation labels in 2013, with a building area of 86.9 million square meters.

Concerns Behind the Halo

However, behind the impressive achievements, we should still recognize many shortcomings.

First, the level of building energy-saving capacity building does not match the work requirements. In some areas, the building energy-saving management capacity is weak, the professional ability of relevant personnel is not strong, and county-level housing and urban-rural development departments do not even have dedicated offices for building energy efficiency. In some areas, due to low financial levels, the funding input for building energy-saving work is insufficient. In particular, for work such as energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings and renewable energy building applications, which are heavily invested by the central government, some areas have not implemented local matching funds.

It is worth noting that China's current building energy efficiency is still mainly driven by government administrative forces, and the role of market mechanisms is not obvious. Market forces such as civil building energy efficiency evaluation, third-party energy-saving assessment, and building energy-saving service companies are underdeveloped.

Second, some building energy-saving work is not detailed, and the checks are not strict, so the quality and level urgently need to be improved. In terms of new building energy efficiency, some projects have insufficient depth in building energy-saving design, the special energy-saving section is too simple, and the description of building energy-saving practices and performance parameters of insulation materials is missing, which cannot effectively guide construction. The management of energy-saving design software is relatively chaotic, and there is a phenomenon where design indicators are obviously insufficient but are passed by software trade-off calculations.

In terms of energy-saving renovation of existing buildings, the quality of some renovation projects is not high, with problems such as damaged and falling insulation layers and inadequate installation of heat metering devices. After the completion of energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings in northern regions, metered charging has not been simultaneously realized. The progress of energy-saving renovation of public buildings and existing residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter region is lagging behind.

In terms of green buildings, the green building standard system is still not sound, lacking relevant planning, design, construction, and acceptance standards. The integration of green buildings with the existing engineering construction management system is not close, and systematic technical solutions for different climate zones and different building types are still lacking. The service capabilities of relevant design, consulting, and evaluation institutions are not strong.

Eight Measures Draw a New Picture

Building energy efficiency is by no means a pile of energy-saving technologies; it requires reasonable design and the adoption of energy-saving measures that truly suit the building. According to the State Council's deployment on promoting new urbanization, China will carry out building energy-saving work in eight aspects.

First, implement the building energy efficiency improvement project. Second, comprehensively promote green building actions. Third, steadily improve the quality and level of energy efficiency in new buildings. Fourth, deeply advance the energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings. Fifth, increase the energy-saving management of public buildings. Sixth, achieve large-scale and high-level application of renewable energy in the building sector. Seventh, strengthen the supporting capacity building related to building energy efficiency. Eighth, strictly implement the assessment of building energy-saving target responsibilities.

It is worth mentioning that China will continue to increase the implementation of heat metering and energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings in the northern heating region, and in the last two years of the "12th Five-Year Plan", an additional energy-saving renovation area of

300 million square meters will be completed, of which more than 170 million square meters will be completed in 2014.

In addition, further expanding the scope of provincial public building energy consumption dynamic monitoring platform construction has also been put on an important agenda. China strives to complete a nationwide public building energy consumption dynamic monitoring system by 2015. The creation of resource-saving campuses and hospitals, as well as the construction of key cities for public building energy-saving renovation, the formulation of energy consumption quota standards for classified public buildings in various regions, and contract energy management will also be promoted simultaneously. In terms of large-scale and high-level application of renewable energy in the building sector, before 2015, existing renewable energy building application demonstrations should complete acceptance, and regions with better completion are planned to take the lead in implementing concentrated contiguous promotion.

As a major building energy consumer, China's supporting capacity building related to building energy efficiency is also urgent. China will further improve the building energy consumption statistical system, gradually expand the scope of statistical objects, increase the proportion of statistical buildings, and gradually establish a regional building energy-saving accounting system. Strengthen scientific and technological innovation in building energy efficiency, and support the research and development of major common key technologies such as passive energy-saving building systems, green building technology integration systems, and building industry modernization systems.