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 hina's refrigerator industry is the largest in the
world. As such, it contributes a significant share of ozone-depleting
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the environment. Now, an internationally
funded, award-winning project to improve the energy efficiency
of Chinese refrigerators, developed by the Department of Energy's
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has received a green light
from the government of China and international funders.
 The five-year
program -- the CFC-Free Energy-Efficient Refrigerator Project
-- consists of a series of market-oriented measures for manufacturers
and consumers to encourage the production and consumption of
CFC-free energy-efficient refrigerators. It is expected to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from China by a total of over 100 million
tons of carbon dioxide from 20 million households over the 15-year
lifetime of the new refrigerators. Also, because 80 percent of
China's electricity is generated by coal-burning plants, the
benefits of the project will include avoided emissions of other
air pollutants.
"Refrigerator
production in China jumped from 1.4 million units in 1985 to
10.6 million in 1998," according to David Fridley, a researcher
in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division,
and manager of the refrigerator project. "In 1985, only
7 percent of urban households had refrigerators. By 1998, 76
percent had them, a 21 percent annual growth rate. The average
Chinese refrigerator uses 2.5 kilowatt-hours per liter of volume
per year, compared to 1.5 kWh/l for European refrigerators."
The Global
Environmental Facility, through the United Nations Development
Program, has decided to fund $9.3 million of the $40 million
program to help the government of China transform its market
for refrigerators. Berkeley Lab has been involved in the project
since 1995 through the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
developing the market transformation program based on the success
of the first phase of the project, which involved designing and
testing CFC-free, energy-efficient refrigerators. Fridley says
that beyond his technical supervisory role, the Laboratory will
be involved in training and working with the State Bureau of
Technical Supervision as the new efficiency standards are developed.
"Market
transformation," Fridley explains, "is the process
of shifting consumer demand for a product, in this case to a
more energy-efficient, environmentally benign product through
voluntary, market-based means such as technical assistance and
training for manufacturers, consumer education, and financial
incentives to manufacture and sell the more efficient product."
Berkeley
Lab has worked directly with cooperating US and international
agencies such as the US EPA, the United Nations Development Program,
the China State Environmental Protection Administration and the
former China National Council for Light Industry to determine
a comprehensive set of measures based on economic, policy, and
technical analysis.
"Collectively,
we developed a technical training program for Chinese refrigerator
manufacturers interested in developing CFC-free, efficient refrigerators;
a financial incentive program to motivate manufacturers to build
the most efficient refrigerator possible; a dealer incentive
program to convince dealers to stock the new refrigerators; and
a mass purchasing program for Chinese government agencies that
acquire refrigerators in bulk," Fridley says.
Other new
project activities will include a recycling buy-back pilot program,
revision of existing refrigerator efficiency standards, an energy-efficiency
labeling system, and an extensive nationwide consumer education
campaign.
In 1998,
the refrigerator project was awarded an International Climate
Protection Award by the EPA. "It is not widely known in
the United States, but China has had an energy-efficiency policy
in place since the early 1980s," says Mark Levine, Environmental
Energy Technologies Division Director and an advisor to the Chinese
government on energy efficiency. "The government of China
is committed to using energy more efficiently, and this has allowed
the economy to grow at nearly twice the rate of energy consumption.
"One
effect of the increasing affluence in China is that refrigerators
are growing in size and consuming more energy," adds Levine.
"The Energy-Efficient Refrigerator Project will have a significant,
direct effect on reducing greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions.
We at Berkeley Lab are grateful to have the chance to work with
the people and government of China on this project, as well as
on our other projects in energy data analysis, appliance efficiency
standards, and technical advice on cogeneration plants."
The refrigerator
project began in 1989, when the EPA signed an agreement with
the government of China to assist in the elimination of CFCs
from refrigerators. Under the Montreal Protocol, most nations
of the world agreed to phase out the use of CFCs to protect the
Earth's ozone layer. The success of the design phase of the project,
in which a prototype model of 40 percent greater efficiency was
produced and tested, led to eventual multilateral support for
the new phase.
Major Chinese
participants in the project have included the China State Environmental
Protection Administration, the State Administration for Light
Industry, the Household Electric Appliance Research Institute,
and domestic refrigerator manufacturers. Major US participants
have included the EPA, the University of Maryland Center for
Environmental Energy Engineering, Underwriters Laboratories,
and Berkeley Lab. 
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