Watching the Winter Olympics to the future丨 Decoding the "temperature control" black technology of the Winter Olympics: Made in China "soft and hard" to create a new benchmark for low-carbon buildings

Per reporter: Chen Pengli Per editor: Wei Guanhong

At present, the ongoing 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has attracted worldwide attention. The olympic concept of this Winter Olympic Games is "green, shared, open and clean", of which "green" ranks first.

The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that "low-carbon management" has actually run through the whole process of preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics. On January 13, Li Sen, director of the overall planning department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, publicly stated that "the Beijing Winter Olympics will be fully carbon neutral." On the eve of the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, the Olympic Organizing Committee also released the "Beijing Winter Olympics Low Carbon Management Report (Pre-Competition)".

As the infrastructure of the Olympic Games, competition venues and non-competition venues are the most important source of carbon emissions. The core of the energy saving of the stadium's operation lies in the HVAC. The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that Gree, Midea and Haier have won many HVAC equipment construction projects for Beijing Winter Olympic venues.

The reporter learned from the Midea Building Technology Division that the MDV cloud multi-line group stationed in the "Bird's Nest" has a maximum energy efficiency of 2.7 times the national standard, which saves more than 40% of the operating energy efficiency compared with the old system, and is expected to help the "Bird's Nest" reduce carbon emissions by about 200 tons per year. Fang Xiangjian, vice president of Gree Electric Appliances, told reporters that the permanent magnet synchronous frequency conversion centrifuge provided by Gree to the National Speed Skating Hall is more than 40% more energy-saving than ordinary centrifuges.

The black technology behind the precise "temperature control"

The reporter learned that in 2008, in the bidding for the construction of venues for the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, the only domestic enterprise among the winning bidders of the central air-conditioning project was Haier, except for Haier, the other winning bidders were foreign brands. However, after 14 years, China's air-conditioning industry as a whole has become quite strong. The HVAC project of the venues of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is basically "Made in China".

"Daily Economic News" reporter learned from midea and Gree that in the Beijing Winter Olympics, Midea provided HVAC solutions for projects such as the National Stadium (Bird's Nest), the Mountain Broadcasting Center, and the Winter Olympic Talent Apartment; while Gree won the bid for the main cold source project of the National Speed Skating Hall with a permanent magnet synchronous frequency conversion centrifuge. In addition, Gree participated in the central air conditioning upgrade of the National Aquatics Center.

Midea's building technology business department relevant people introduced to reporters that the Bird's Nest has a large construction area and a large number of terminal indoor units, how to reduce the cost of air conditioning management and effectively control the equipment in different areas of the venue is a big problem. Midea Building Technology has adopted a "soft and hard" approach, with the solution of "local centralized control + remote centralized control + mobile centralized control", which has improved the overall operation efficiency of the HVAC system of the venue. According to reports, the MDV cloud multi-line group alone can reduce carbon emissions by 200 tons per year for the bird's nest.

"Our generation of multi-line has made a technology unique to the world, that is, it can achieve regional energy control. In this technology, the chip needs to be developed independently, and the whole team took two years to finally realize it. Luo Bin, general manager of Midea Building Technology Fluorine Engine Products Company, said in an interview with reporters.

In the Zhangjiakou Mountain Broadcasting Center, the largest mountain broadcast center in the history of the Winter Olympics, Midea's tailor-made overall solutions cover 6 precision air conditioners, 9 straight expansion machines, 3 combined air conditioning boxes and 2 natural cooling units. Due to the huge group of communication broadcast equipment that operates 24 hours a day, the mountain broadcast center has extremely high temperature control requirements. According to Luo Bin, the HVAC products used in the mountain broadcast center are equipped with the optimal temperature control algorithm, which can achieve accurate temperature control of ± 0.5 degrees or even ± 0.1 degrees. In addition, the natural cooling unit provided by Midea can still ensure the supply of cold quantity in the case of compressor shutdown, and the cooling supply is free.

As the only new ice competition venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the "black technology" content of the National Speed Skating Hall ("Ice Ribbon") is also quite high. The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that in the national speed skating hall HVAC system project, the main cold source part is The Gree winning bid, the end is Haier, and the ice system is Haier and Carrier. Fang Xiangjian told reporters that the Gree permanent magnet synchronous frequency conversion centrifuge unit used in the National Speed Skating Hall uses a high-speed motor direct drive double impeller structure, supplemental gas and two-stage compression technology, and a high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor, which can achieve more than 40% energy saving than ordinary centrifuges.

At this Winter Olympics, the "Water Cube" needs to be upgraded to the "Ice Cube", which poses a challenge for HVAC equipment suppliers. How to achieve efficient refrigeration in the low temperature environment in winter, how to achieve accurate temperature control in the three layers of ice rink, competition area and grandstand, has become a technical problem that needs to be broken through. Fang Xiangjian explained to reporters that for example, the curling competition, which is known as the "noble sport on ice", has strict requirements for the field. First of all, the ice surface temperature should be guaranteed to be -8.5 °C, 1.5 meters above the ice surface should always be maintained at 8 °C -12 °C, and the temperature of the spectator area of the grandstand should be guaranteed to be 16 °C-18 °C. In view of the above technical difficulties and project characteristics, Gree finally decided to use 3 low-temperature air-cooled screw units, integrated chilled water system, and equipment group control and other intelligent control technologies to ensure that the conditions in the museum meet the requirements of the event.

Domestic centrifuges are becoming stronger and stronger

Fang Xiangjian told reporters that the Beijing Winter Olympics have always adhered to the concept of green Olympics, while ensuring the smooth progress of the Winter Olympics, the energy saving and high efficiency will be integrated into it, and to realize this concept, it relies on the powerful power of China's manufacturing. "To contribute to the goal of 'carbon peaking' and 'carbon neutrality', the manufacturing industry depends largely on the improvement and progress of scientific and technological levels, especially in the core technology to achieve innovative breakthroughs."

The "Daily Economic News" reporter noted that this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, the figure of domestic centrifuges appeared frequently. Centrifuges represent the highest technical level of the central air conditioning industry, due to the high technical threshold, this industry has been dominated by American brand technology. However, under the continuous technology and market promotion of home appliance giants, the market share of domestic brand centrifuges has gradually increased, and the rise of the past two years is very obvious, and the industry competition pattern has loosened.

The reporter learned that at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Gree won the most bid centrifuge projects, respectively, provided 4 permanent magnet synchronous frequency conversion centrifuges to the National Speed Skating Hall, supplied 3 magnetic levitation centrifuges to the Winter Olympic Talent Apartment, and supplied 2 centrifuges to the zhangjiakou Winter Olympics non-registered VIP reception center. The Beijing-Zhang high-speed rail station uses a new generation of magnetic levitation variable frequency centrifugal chillers independently developed by 8 Midea.

Fang Xiangjian said, "Gree to the Winter Olympic Village to provide magnetic levitation inverter centrifuge, the use of Gree independent research and development, the international leading magnetic bearing technology, instead of ordinary mechanical bearings, refrigeration system running oil-free, frictionless, higher energy efficiency, lower noise, while ensuring the efficacy of the maximum realization of energy saving and emission reduction." ”

According to the "China Central Air Conditioning Market Report in the First Half of 2021" released by Aiken Refrigeration Network, in the statistics of the market share of centrifugal unit brands, in the first half of last year, although the market share of American brands represented by Johnson, Carrier, McVille and Trane is still more than 60%, the market share of Gree, Midea and Haier has also increased to 21.1%, and the market share of domestic brands has grown rapidly.

Daily economic news