Starting in April, the China Lighting Conversion program plans to distribute 10 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs in China. Most Chinese people cannot afford the energy-efficient bulbs, but the Clinton Global Initiative's Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy is raising funds for the project. Partners already include China's Ministry of Construction, Tsinghua University and the media company Bertelsmann.
Replacing 10 million conventional lamps with compact fluorescent lamps will prevent the release of about 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide over four years and
eliminate the need for ten 50-megawatt coal-fired power plants. Put another way, an investment of $20 million is expected to eliminate the need for a $500 million investment in new power plants.—Dawn Stover
Image: PiccoloNamek
and who will clean up the toxic contents when many of these bulbs break? It has happened here, and specially suited workers had to be called in to clean up afterwards.
Posted by: Paul, USA | November 28, 2007 at 01:25 PM
You're right Paul, this is a horrible idea. You've been listening to too much conservative talk radio methinks...
Posted by: Robert | November 28, 2007 at 03:06 PM
I'd say ~5mg of Hg is pretty small. Until recently I had a relative who went through about 1 mercury battery a week in her hearing aid, at about 1g Hg per. That's 10,000 lamps worth of the stuff a year into the trash. I'm sure there's far worse pollution than that in China...
Posted by: Eric H | November 28, 2007 at 05:58 PM
I'm not sure exactly, but I am quite certain that ten 50-megawatt plants will release more Mercury and heavy metals in a year than all those bulbs combined. Besides, with an effort of this scale, the chinese people are bound to be more informed about disposal than we ever were when we started using them.
Talking about Mercury in CFLs is like trying to knock hybrid and electric cars on battery disposal, without recognizing that you dont have to change oil (polutant that needs special handling) every 3000 miles OR no copious amounts of vapors and MTBE from gas stations and gas tanks OR no need to trucks and trains burning more oil just to get the damned gas to your neighborhood. AND the list goes on.
It's a step in the right direction. And it makes much more sense financially too.
Posted by: Bryan | November 28, 2007 at 07:33 PM
It's a great start to reduce CO2! Now to just get others to ride electric bicycles in US cities like the Chinese do in theirs.
Posted by: Tyler | November 28, 2007 at 08:09 PM
the real problem is that you can't just replace the tubes and keep the rest, think of all of the parts you'd save.
Posted by: coldpudding | November 28, 2007 at 09:25 PM
So, is the rest of the world buying (or subsidizing) CFL bulbs made in Chinese factories to give to the Chinese people? I think with a 1 trillion budget surplus, China's gov't can buy their own bulbs! That's the way I read it.
If so, this is a lot like the billions in carbon credit money that flows to China to fix freon emissions from factories there. Except the cost of the carbon credits that others are buying are fixed so that they pay far more than needed to actually fix the problem.
Posted by: Eric H | November 28, 2007 at 09:26 PM
It is great that people are thinking about the environment and working to make the world a safer place. Not only the materials that you are using on your home are safe for the environment but dump trucks have come a long way since the earlier models. We are learning and expanding and coming up with a wide range of safer more effective vehicles for the work force. I think it is great that many auto manufacturers are turning to hybrid vehicles to protect the environment and now they are even using hybrid dump trucks.
Posted by: Used Bucket Trucks | May 09, 2009 at 09:22 AM
Wow, extremely interesting. I love the idea of saving energy. I hope it will work. One way to help prevent pollution is to by used/recylced products like used bucket trucks.
Posted by: Bucket trucks | October 02, 2009 at 11:36 AM
interesting post! thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Utility Bucket Truck | October 05, 2009 at 03:10 PM
I am agree with the use of fluorescent lightbulbs in the house because we can save too much energy. China Know all the benefits.
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I can't believe how much of this I just wasn't aware of. Thank you for bringing more information to this topic for me. I'm truly grateful and really impressed.
Posted by: Health News | March 22, 2011 at 07:26 AM
China is the world's largest producer of pollution. I'm not sure that buying them a bunch of energy efficient light bulbs is the best allocation of money for this project though.
Just a thought... good post.
Posted by: bucket trucks | May 05, 2011 at 11:03 AM
It appears that the greatest problem here is that the inspector, whose job is to ensure that a structure is safe for residents, no construction date information regarding changes in the supporting materials that he may have deemed unsafe or inadequate
Posted by: bucket trucks | June 19, 2011 at 09:49 PM