In July this year, the construction of a national zero-carbon factory was officially launched. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, our country will cultivate and build 500 zero-carbon factories. From the wind power equipment factory in Yizhuang, Beijing, to the cable factory in Jinshan, Shanghai, zero-carbon factories are gradually turning from concept into reality. What does a zero-carbon factory look like? What changes will it bring to production and life?
Baht must be compared
Reduce carbon emissions to single digits
Two wind turbines stand on the banks of the Liangshui River in Yizhuang, Beijing. Operation and maintenance engineer Ding Zhenyu climbed up the 125-meter-high tower and installed a "vortex generator" on the blades, a part the size of a fingernail, which can increase power generation efficiency by 2%.
The installation position, angle and other parameters of the vortex generator on the blade are all particular. Jin Meng, a blade aerodynamic design engineer, said that an additional 0.5% was added to the original basis, and hundreds of simulations and wind tunnel tests were conducted for this 0.5%.
The reason why this 0.5% must be compared with every penny is hidden in the factory next to it. They are in the process of declaring a national zero-carbon factory.
Factory director Chen Hailai said that almost all the factory's carbon emissions come from electricity consumption. Last year, the factory consumed nearly 9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, and the green power generated by its own wind power and rooftop photovoltaics accounted for more than 25% of the factory's total electricity consumption. The remaining approximately 6 million kWh will be purchased from the market for green power or green certificates.
Among the application conditions for national-level zero-carbon factories, the boundary of "spending money to buy green" is emphasized: the physical certified amount of non-fossil energy power consumption, the basic requirement is not less than 10%, and the target requirement is not less than 35%. Physically certified quantity: refers to “traceable” green electricity such as spontaneous self-use and direct connection of green electricity. Chen Hailai admitted that this is the most difficult of all conditions, so it is crucial to improve the efficiency of direct-connected fans.
It is difficult to increase revenue, so we must reduce expenditure. The most power-consuming process in the factory is the testing cabin of electronic control equipment before leaving the factory (power consumption accounts for more than 85%). In the past, a full-load test of the pitch cabinet required more than 200 degrees of electricity for three hours.
Now, Chen Hailai has installed an "active feedback rectification unit" on the equipment, which directly reduces the power consumption of this process by 70%.
They also carried out automated transformation of the production line. AGV cars make more than 500 trips a day, improving logistics efficiency by 30%.
In order to solve the problem of high power consumption of air conditioners in summer, the factory built a 1,500 cubic meter fire-fighting pool about 10 meters underground as a "water cold storage" system. At night, the surplus power of the fan or the low electricity price is used, combined with the "ground source heat pump" technology, to cool the pool to 6 degrees Celsius, and then deliver the cold water to the air conditioning system during the day. This set of "water storage power bank" saves about 20% of electricity than traditional central air conditioners.
The photovoltaic seats in the park can be charged, and the photovoltaics in the parking shed can charge employees' new energy vehicles. The power of the charging pile can also be dynamically adjusted according to the power load of the park.
There is also a smart energy carbon platform behind the factory, which uses a large AI model to calculate the optimal strategy: whether to prioritize green electricity or cost, which can be accurately measured and switched with one click. Today, many of the company's core indicators have met national-level zero-carbon factory construction requirements.
Carbon reduction assistance
Enterprise output value increases by 20% while electricity consumption decreases by 20%
A cable factory in Jinshan, Shanghai, mainly produces various types of cable products and is a traditional energy consumer.
However, in the past five years, the company's output value has increased by 20%, while annual electricity consumption has dropped from more than 50 million kilowatt hours to more than 40 million kilowatt hours, saving nearly 10 million yuan in electricity bills every year. The person in charge, Zhou Guihua, said that in the past, electricity costs accounted for 1% of the output value, but now it is 0.4%.
From source carbon reduction to process decarbonization, companies are carefully calculating their "technological transformation accounts".
First stop, on the roof. The photovoltaic panels covering the roof of the factory area can generate more than 5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, accounting for more than 10% of the entire factory's electricity consumption.
Second stop, at the boiler. Natural gas boilers are the largest emitters of carbon emissions in the factory. Through technical transformation, the factory replaced the original 6-ton boiler with 1-ton and 0.5-ton small boilers, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2,000 tons every year.
The third stop is in the core process. The 8mm thick copper rod is thinned into 0.2mm copper wire. The drawing process takes up to 12 hours and is the most energy-consuming process in the entire factory. Through the transformation of energy-saving equipment, the energy consumption of the new wire drawing machine has been reduced by about 30%.
Output value goes up and energy consumption goes down. Over the years, the entire plant has carried out 11 technical reforms, saving a total of more than 5,000 tons of standard coal and reducing greenhouse gases by more than 4,000 tons.
The factory has also conducted product carbon footprint certification, and the carbon dioxide produced by each kilometer of wires and cables "from cradle to gate" is clear.
Currently, the biggest headache for factories is the goal of “35% physical green electricity certification” for national zero-carbon factories. Rooftop photovoltaics are spread to the limit, and the proportion of physical green electricity has just exceeded the basic line of 10%, which is far from the 35% target line.
This is also a common problem faced by most manufacturing companies in Shanghai: limited land space makes it difficult to expand new energy facilities. In the face of enterprises’ “green electricity anxiety”, Shanghai Energy Conservation Center and other departments are planning to establish AI systems and use intelligent microgrids to promote the reasonable matching of green electricity resources among enterprises in the region.
The zero-carbon factory is not a one-company effort, but a coordinated effort by the government, enterprises, and the entire industry chain. When 500 zero-carbon factories are completed in China, this green revolution has just begun.
(CCTV Finance)
