“During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China renovated 182 million square meters of existing residential buildings; during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, it plans to renovate another 400 million square meters of existing residential buildings. Although current progress is still relatively slow compared with national requirements and shortcomings remain in industrialization, future development potential is enormous.” This information was recently obtained from relevant sources.

　　“If solar power generation materials could be installed on the roofs and walls of all 45 billion square meters of existing buildings nationwide, their installed capacity would be 10 times the current national installed power generation capacity.” Han Aixing, deputy director of the Department of Building Energy Conservation and Science and Technology of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, introduced another important set of data. He also joked: “We do not expect all of them to be installed; as long as those with suitable conditions install them, that would still be twice the current installed capacity.”

　　It is reported that the Sino-German Energy-Efficient Public Buildings (Primary and Secondary Schools and Hospitals) Project Office, based at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, is currently working to vigorously accelerate the progress of energy-saving renovation of existing buildings.

　　Combining Sunlight with Buildings Exploring the effective integration of solar energy and buildings and widely applying renewable energy to energy-saving renovation projects for existing buildings is the unremitting pursuit of many industry insiders.

　　“Energy-saving renovation of existing buildings is an important part of building energy conservation work and is of great significance for saving energy, improving indoor thermal environments, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting the transformation of development modes in the housing and urban-rural development sector, and supporting sustainable economic and social development. Clean energy such as solar energy will play an increasingly prominent role in building energy conservation,” said Shi Dinghuan, counselor of the State Council and chairman of the China Renewable Energy Society.

　　Industry insiders believe that with the continued development of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, total energy demand will continue to increase and total carbon dioxide emissions will continue to grow, making the promotion of green buildings more urgent and the energy-saving renovation of existing buildings imperative.

　　The Path of Building Energy-Saving Renovation In fact, building energy-saving renovation is not a new issue. As early as 20 years ago, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development had already carried out building energy conservation work and proposed several important strategies, including gradually advancing from north to south, from new buildings to energy-saving renovation of existing buildings, from cities to rural areas, and from residential buildings to public buildings.

　　Survey data from 15 northern cities obtained by the reporter show that about 3.5 billion square meters of residential buildings still have renovation value. According to the national 12th Five-Year Plan, only 400 million square meters can be renovated within five years.

　　According to Han Aixing, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has currently carried out demonstration projects for energy-saving renovation of existing buildings of nearly 100,000 square meters in four cities, and many localities have also made the renovation of existing buildings a local livelihood project.

　　“Since 2005, we have been paying attention to energy-saving renovation of existing buildings. However, since the implementation of mandatory building energy-saving standards in 2002, there are still a large number of residential and other buildings that have not adopted energy-saving measures, of which more than half are probably urban residential buildings. In addition, based on experience worldwide, large public buildings and hospitals consume relatively large amounts of energy and have relatively large energy-saving potential. Therefore, we have always said that the renovation of existing buildings is the biggest watermelon in energy conservation and emission reduction, and we should pick this watermelon,” Han Aixing said.

　　At the same time, he also expressed concern about the current situation: “We now have two problems: first, institutional problems; second, investment problems. It is almost impossible to rely solely on government fiscal input for the renovation of these buildings. We not only need support from investment forces across society, but also need progress in technology.”

　　“If we can introduce market mechanisms and let residents invest, I believe investing in solar power generation is much more worthwhile than buying a car, and also much more worthwhile than buying an empty house and waiting for its price to rise. Of course, this also depends on reform of the system for connecting generated electricity to the grid,” Han Aixing said.

　　As a supporter of environmental protection and energy conservation, Zheng Chonghua said: “By 2015, the energy consumption per unit area of public buildings in key cities should fall by more than 20%, among which the energy consumption per unit building area of large public buildings should fall by more than 30%. Implementing energy-saving renovation for these high-energy-consumption large public buildings can, on the one hand, substantially reduce building energy consumption and realize the concept of environmental protection and energy conservation, and on the other hand, can also promote the rapid development of emerging energy-saving industries and create green, low-carbon, and livable lives.”

　　“I hope that energy-saving renovation of existing buildings can be combined with solar energy applications. The two are very likely to be the best partners, and we look forward to achieving good results,” Han Aixing expressed his wish.