During the China International Sustainable Economy Industrialization Expo, held on Nov. 19-20 in Chengdu, government officials adhered to the party line.

China has installed the first major offshore wind farm outside of Europe. + Image In China, most offshore wind farms likely will be built in intertidal areas. Located in the East China Sea, near Shanghai, the 102-MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm began transmitting power to the national grid in July. The farm, which is slated to expand in the coming years, eventually will generate annually 267 million kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power 200,000 Shanghai households. It currently is supplying power to the Shanghai Expo and serving as a showcase project at the five-month-long international event. The $337-million Donghai Bridge farm

The Chinese government is considering building a 38-GW hydroelectric project on the Brahmaputra River in the Himalayas. The dam at the Motuo bend of the river would produce 1½ times the power of China’s Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest hydroelectric-generating station. The dam is part of the Chinese government’s plan to more than double the country’s hydropower generation to 250,000 MW by 2020. A total of 28 potential dams along the Yarlung Tsangpo, as the Tibetans call the river, were identified by Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan academic based at the University of British Columbia, Canada, who studies environmental

Nigeria’s state-run oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., signed a memorandum of understanding in June with the China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd. to create three oil refineries and a petrochemical plant. Each refinery in the $23.8-billion deal would have a production capacity of 250,000 barrels per day, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency. A consortium of Chinese banks, including China’s Export and Credit Insurance Corp. and China’s Export-Import Bank, is expected to provide funding. The loans would be repaid from the refinery production stream, with the Chinese managing the refineries until loans are repaid. Despite being the

Despite last year’s economic downturn, global wind power capacity kept growing—particularly in China, which has squeaked past Germany to become the world’s second-largest wind power market behind the U.S. China more than doubled installed capacity in 2009 to 25.8 GW, says the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). “The biggest difference in terms of expansion comes from local Chinese manufacturers,” says Dheeraj Choudhary, the global renewable-energy business-unit chief at Cleveland manufacturer Parker Hannifin, which has provided hydraulics and other parts for Chinese-made wind turbines for a decade. GWEC reports about 80 domestic wind-turbine makers. Joanna Lewis, assistant professor at Georgetown University,

International engineers and contractors may be eyeing China as the world’s largest consumer market, but the Chinese government still wants domestic industry firms to do some market-related globetrotting of their own, particularly in rail construction. Photo: Bombardier Corp. China purchased more than 60 Canadian-made high-speed-rail cars that will ride on domestic and global lines Chinese firms aim to design and build. Photo: Lou Rocco / ENR China Rail Construction top economist Shang Qingxi says the firm is now the country’s largest contractor. The state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) is now China’s largest and fastest-growing contractor, says Shang Qingxi, deputy

...Insight steel analyst. But even those price levels may be too high. “I don’t see how low worldwide demand can support these prices,” he points out. Steel prices are being driven not by demand but by a surge in scrap prices. “Scrap prices have gone crazy since late 2009. They are now just below 2008’s peak, and they could end up duplicating the 2008 spike,” says Anton. “Right now, inventories are thin, which is allowing higher prices to sneak back in. But once inventories are restocked, I think we will see prices fall back off.” The China Connection The inventory

Prices for diesel fuel, structural steel, lumber and gypsum-wallboard products started to stir during the first quarter, but most increases were coming off dismal lows in 2009 and were not strong enough to break the stranglehold the recession has on construction costs. Eleven of 15 major industry cost indexes tracked by ENR showed costs falling below a year ago. These drops included year-to-year declines of 5.8% for warehouse construction, 4.7% for office buildings and 1.7% for school construction, according to the U.S. Commerce Dept.’s January cost indexes. The agency also reported in January another 3.6% decline in homebuilding costs during

Environmentalists were disappointed by the two-week United Nations-sponsored Copenhagen climate- change summit, which failed to set binding emissions targets. But the Danish conference, attended by 119 government heads, has helped stimulate engineers to promote themselves as low-carbon champions. Indonesian floods are thought to be tied to climate change. Global summit in Copenhagen produced only an outline of how countries may address the issue, but engineering firms see clients who believe “decarbonizing” is going to happen. Related Links: Head Sees Climate Change Chances: Arup Group Gears up to Low Carbon 'Suffering and Economic Collapse' Atkin's Keith Clarke on Global Warming Regardless

Signaling a move out of deflation, China’s consumer price index in November climbed 0.6% from a year earlier. This comes in tandem with the decision by China’s government, which had held prices for materials at superficially low levels, to allow them to rise and to begin introducing market competition in several key resource sectors. Related Links: Parity Index Adjusts for Exchange Rate Swings Forecast: Inflation Stalls As Recession Undercuts Nonresidential Building Markets Markets: Major Firms Are Pessimistic About A Fast Industry Recovery International: Global Recession Pushes Down Inflation Thailand: Construction Costs Bounce Up As The Recession Bottoms Out Canada: Cool