Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 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
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
×