A GREEN OLYMPICS

By Chen Ke

Environmental protection has been a constant in venue planning,construction, and operation

Hosting a low-carbon and eco-friendly event has been a core concept since the original bid that led to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.Across more than half a decade of preparations,efforts ranging from sustainable use of existing venues to low-carbon public transportation networks and green electricity have been made to give the world a green Olympics.

Green Venues

Ice and snow are essential elements for the Winter Olympics.Equipped with China’s largest carbon dioxide (CO2)transcritical direct cooling ice making system, the National Speed Skating Oval located in downtown Beijing is the only newly constructed ice sports venue for the 2022 Winter Games and the first of its kind globally to harness its cuttingedge ice making technology.

Cooling, either by natural or artificial means, plays a fundamental role in winter sports.“Compared with traditional refrigeration solutions, the new technology can increase refrigeration efficiency by 20 percent and help maintain the temperature difference on the entire ice surface within 0.5 degrees Celsius,”explained Ma Jin, design leader of the refrigeration engineering project at the oval, who hailed the CO2-based refrigeration as the world’s most advanced and environmentally friendly ice making technology, with carbon emissions reduced to nearly zero.“By recycling the waste heat, our system can save about 2 million kWh of electricity a year,” Ma added.

The first of its type in China, the National Sliding Center is located in the Yanqing competition zone in suburban Beijing, about 100 kilometers away from the National Speed Skating Oval.The 1,975-meter-long track at the venue has a vertical drop of 121 meters and consists of 16 curves of varying degrees,including a 360-degree turn previously unseen in Asia.

Li Kun, deputy director of the Ice, Snow and Special Refrigeration Department of Huashang International Engineering Co., Ltd., participated in the National Sliding Center project from site survey to design, construction,operation, and maintenance.“The facility is the first Winter Olympic venue for bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge events to use a combined cooling and heating system,” explained Li.“While cooling the ice surface and maintaining the temperature on the track, our system allows the reuse of the waste heat generated by the compressor units of the refrigeration system.The recycled heat warms the office and living areas in the venue.”

Ecological Conservation

Compared to the Summer Olympics,the Winter Games generally demand more new construction.Venues for outdoor winter sports are often built on mountains, which unavoidably exerts a certain impact on the ecological environment.During preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the idea of environmental protection was transformed into concrete results throughout venue planning,construction, and operation.

Workers at the Yanqing converter station of the Zhangbei ±500-kilovolt felxible DC power grid conduct equipment maintenance on September 25, 2021. (LI XIN)

The National Speed Skating Oval after ice making, May 8, 2021.(ZHANG CHENLIN)

Home to the National Sliding Center,the National Alpine Skiing Center,and the Winter Olympic Village, the core area of the Yanqing competition zone is located at the southern slope of Xiaohaituo Mountain.The highest altitude in the zone is 2,198 meters.Liu Jinzhu, head of the Administrative Examination and Approval Department of Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Yanqing District,noted that the Yanqing competition zone prioritized ecological conservation in venue construction to minimize the impact on the environment.

According to Liu, 130 native trees were saved from removal during construction of the Winter Olympic Village, 24,000 trees across the entire competition zone were transplanted to a designated area, and stones and rocks at the construction site were processed and used to build the exterior walls of some structures.“So far, an ecological security protection project covering 2.14 million square meters and an ecological restoration project covering 23,000 square meters have been completed in the zone, maintaining biodiversity at a high level.”

In addition to ecological conservation projects, efforts have also been made to build sponge areas in the Zhangjiakou competition zone in Hebei Province to save water.The National Cross-Country Skiing Center, the National Ski Jumping Center, and the National Biathlon Center in the Guyangshu Cluster at Zhangjiakou are equipped with a rainwater collection system integrating water seepage, retention, storage,purification, utilization, and drainage to minimize waste of water resources.“We constructed five reservoirs of different sizes with a combined storage capacity of 500,000 cubic meters in the Guyangshu Cluster,” said Zhang Li, chief designer of Big Air Shougang in Beijing and sports facilities located in the Zhangjiakou competition zone.“They serve both landscapes and ecological conservation, effectively improving utilization of local water resources.”

Carbon-neutral Olympics

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be the first large-scale international sports festival held in China since the country made commitments to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.To this end,Beijing has made determined efforts to neutralize CO2 emissions produced from venue construction and event organization.

According to the Carbon Management Plan for the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games issued by the organizing committee in 2019,four measures for carbon neutrality and 18 emission reduction measures would be implemented in areas such as energy use, venue construction,transportation, and environmental standards.

A supportive clean energy project for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Zhangbei ±500-kilovolt flexible direct current (DC) power grid has succeeded in integrating hundreds of wind farms and thousands of photovoltaic power stations in the city of Zhangjiakou and realized grid-connected generation and transmission of green electricity.The power grid will make the 2022 Winter Games the first Olympics in history to be powered by 100 percent clean electricity, according to Ding Jianming,deputy director of the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office.The project is estimated to be able to deliver about 22.5 billion kWh of electricity to Beijing, about a tenth of the city’s annual electric power consumption.

Low-carbon transportation is another key area to ensure a carbonneutral Olympics.A green public transportation network has been built to fulfill the travel needs within and between the three competition zones in downtown Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics,spectators will enjoy convenient public transportation and can get to the venues by bus, subway, or high-speed rail.Green travel within each competition zone will also be ensured.