Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) received an award at the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, on Nov 15 for renovating its Terminal 1 with low-carbon solutions.

Inrecent years, SHA has been carrying out the concept of green development in its construction and renovation projects, greatly saving energy and reducing costs.

The airport has been lowering energy consumption in Terminal 2 since its establishment seven years ago. As an important part of the Hongqiao ComprehensiveTransport Hub, T2 consumes large amount of energy everyday.

An energy management contract model was introduced to work out solutions for upgrading the lighting system in T2’s public areas. A total of 38,015 LED lights were installed, which will save 5.7 million kWh of power annually.

SHA is promoting clean energy and new energy vehicles. The photovoltaic power generation system built in 2014 has produced 8.62 million kWh of electricity.

The energy center, restaurants and some offices have started to use solar water-heating systems, and the solar-heated area has reached more than 700 square meters.

The airport set up about 300 charging points and bought new energy vehicles for business use.

A time-share electric car rental service is available in the airport’s public parking space.

In addition, SHA has improved its management through developing a digital control system for air conditioning, ventilation and lighting to reduce energy consumption and provide a comfortable environment for passengers.

Thanks to time-of-use water thermal storage technology, the airport has achieved effective operation of its heating and cooling systems during peaks and troughs of power supply, saving at least 6 million yuan ($900,000) every year.

At present, SHA is promoting long distance water meter reading, with the aim of finding leaking pipes and the most efficient ways to save water.

So far, the new water meters have operated in more than 50 percent of the airport’s total area, covering 90 percent of the area. A monitoring system has been launched to detect damaged pipes more quickly.

As a major aviation gateway and piece of public infrastructure in China, Hongqiao airport has effectively improved its energy management through innovations inrecent years. It will further upgrade energy conservation technology to build itself into a greener airport.