China embraces cleaner bricks

Sichuan, China-based China Energy Conservation Investment (CECIC) has started construction on a ¥500 million ($73.5 million USD) production line for energy-saving bricks.

The factory in central China’s Pengzhou, in the Sichuan province is expected to produce 400 million bricks a year. Construction has now started on the 160-mu (26.36-acre) plant, which is planned to produce five types of gangue-shale sintering bricks for construction.

The new material has an advantage over clay bricks with better heat and sound insulation qualities, CECIC said.

State-owned CECIC has 10 building-material production lines in cities including Tianjin, Hebei, Fujian and Ningxia with an annual output of 1 billion bricks. CECIC says the annual output can use 1 million tons of gangue and ash, and save 300,000 tons of standard coal, compared to traditional bricks.

CECIC is the only national-level investment company in energy conservation and environmental protection. It has more than 60 subsidiaries and 10,000 employees in China.

Another subsidiary, CECIC Wind Power, recently announced plans for a 200-megawatt wind-power project in Changma Village in northwest China. CECIC Wind Power is developing the wind farm with Hong Kong Energy Holdings, which also owns a 40-percent stake in another 200 MW wind farm in Jiuquan City.

Hong Kong Energy Holdings was previously known as J.I.C. Technology until it was acquired in March by HKC, a Hong Kong-based property developer and alternative energy company (see JIC Tech invests in wind, cellulosic ethanol).

CECIC says it plans to have 1,000 MW of wind capacity by 2012, in addition to a reserve of wind power resources in Inner Mongolia and Gansu of 2,000 MW.