Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Aug 27, 2025

China builds giant air conditioner cooling almost 3 square kilometres

China builds giant air conditioner cooling almost 3 square kilometres

A giant centralised air conditioning station providing cooling to public spaces including malls, offices and transport stations has just been completed in Shenzhen, as part of an ambitious plan to reduce energy consumption.

Shenzhen has just finished building an instalment of a central District Cooling System (DCS), which supplies cold air to malls, offices and transport stations.

The company which built the system, the Shenzhen Qianhai Energy Technology Development Company, is also working with Hong Kong on a DCS located in Kai Tak.

The No. 5 cooling station, which started supplying cold air in June in Shenzhen’s Qianhai area, covers more than 2.75 square kilometres of public buildings, but not residential households.

This image shows how the various stages of the project will bring cooling to the city.


“The characteristics of residential households determine that they are not suitable for DCS, the system calls for more routine usage, such as from eight to five, that includes offices, commercial centres, subways or data centres,” said Fu Jianping, director of Qianhai energy and vice-president of the District Energy Committee of the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency.

The station is the newest addition to an elaborate DCS in Qianhai, a free trade and economic development area. Currently, three stations have been finished, including No. 5, and seven more will be built over the next few years.

When finished, the 10 stations, with the investment of about 4 billion yuan (US$617 million), can supply a total of 400,000 Refrigeration Ton (RT) of cold air, covering 19 million square metres.

Shenzhen first started planning the DCS alongside Qianhai’s development in 2014. The government analysed Qianhai’s energy needs and decided that in southern China, air conditioning is a major consumer of energy, Fu said.

A DCS distributes cooling capacity in the form of chilled water or other medium from a central source to multiple buildings through a network of underground pipes. At the DCS station, which is four floors underground, the South China Morning Post saw a tangle of pipes, water collectors, separators and coolers in an area vast enough for a football field.

“It’s like a factory that has industrialised production of chilled water for an air-conditioner,” Fu said.

The plans for Shenzhen in China to build a giant air conditioner cooling almost 3 square kilometres of public buildings to reduce energy consumption.


He said the system in Qianhai can save 130 million kilowatts of electricity every year, which is equal to burning 16,000 tonnes of coal, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 130,000 tonnes.

“A DCS is a centralised system so it cuts down machinery by 20 per cent, as opposed to installing individual machines, and the fewer machines, the less refrigerant we use. That’s one way to reduce emissions,” he said.

Furthermore, the company will pay more attention to energy-saving technology and choose more efficient equipment, even if it means more investment.

“This is an energy company, the money we invested will need to see returns in future operations, so the more maximised use I get out of energy the better,” Fu said.

DCS is found in many parts of the world, including Japan, Canada, Middle East, US and parts of Europe, even though techniques and development vary from one country to the next.

In the US, where demand for air-conditioning is one of the highest in the world, large systems were built in the 1930s in Rockefeller Center and the first commercial DCS has been in operation since 1962 in Hartford in Connecticut.

However, the system is not without its shortcomings. Some controversy around DCS includes energy lost when delivered through the pipes and the large investment involved in the system.

Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser in Beijing for US environmental group the Natural Resources Defence Council, said DCS requires certain conditions to install.

“These stations cannot be too big or too small, but an appropriate economic size. The buildings need to be concentrated, and the pipes need to have good heat preservation,” he said.

In the past, some DCS projects in China were widely questioned. In 2009, local media reported that a project in central China’s Taiyuan could supply one million square metres but in reality only 50,000 square metres was covered and could not operate profitably. Companies and real estate agents were not willing to buy these services because it’s more costly than standard air-conditioning.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
Nurse who raped woman continued working for a year despite police alert
Drought forces closures of England’s canal routes, canceling boat holidays
Sweet tooth scents: food-inspired perfumes surge as weight-loss drugs suppress appetites
Experts warn Britain dangerously reliant on imported food
Family of Notting Hill Carnival murder victim call event unmanageable
Bunkers, Billions and Apocalypse: The Secret Compounds of Zuckerberg and the Tech Giants
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
×