[2023 national water conservancy construction completed investment hit a new high] "Since the beginning of this year, under the premise of ensuring the quality and safety of the project, the Ministry of Water Resources has made every effort to accelerate the construction of water conservancy infrastructure, and achieved the annual target of completing the investment of more than 1 trillion yuan in the national water conservancy construction one month ahead of schedule, surpassing last year's level and setting a new historical record." On December 12, Chen Min, Vice Minister of Water Resources, introduced the progress of water infrastructure construction at a press conference of the State Information Office, said that from January to November, 27,300 new water conservancy projects were started nationwide, an increase of 2,585 over the same period last year, an increase of 10.5%; Among them, there were 1,879 projects with an investment scale of more than 100 million yuan, 528 more than the same period last year. Data show that from January to November, the national implementation of water conservancy construction investment of 1,156.5 billion yuan, an increase of 0.9%. The national investment in water conservancy projects reached 1,093.8 billion yuan, an increase of 8.5% year on year and exceeding the total investment of the whole of last year. This year, the construction of water conservancy projects in China has accelerated, and a number of major projects have achieved important targets. The country has implemented the reinforcement of 3,628 dangerous reservoirs, the rehabilitation of 999 small and medium-sized rivers, and the construction and modernization of 598 large and medium-sized irrigation areas, improving the ability to provide water supply to 82.13 million rural people, and controlling soil erosion on 12,700 square kilometers of land. From January to November, water conservancy construction created 2.573 million jobs, up 9.1% year on year, and paid 50.48 billion yuan in wages, up 40.6% year on year. Large-scale water infrastructure construction has played an important role in stabilizing growth and employment. Editor/Xu Shengpeng

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• 2024.03.18 18:09
• [Europe: Install solar on the roof of all new residential buildings from 2030]
• The European Parliament has formally adopted the revised Energy Performance Directive for Buildings (EPBD), which will become law after formal approval by the Council of Ministers. The directive requires all new residential buildings in the EU to be powered by rooftop solar from 2030, and public buildings and non-residential buildings will need to be phased in according to their scale and technical and economic assessments. The EPBD aims to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector in line with the EU's goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Currently, the building sector accounts for 40% of the EU's total energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of improving energy efficiency in buildings is to enhance energy independence and sustainability in this sector by reducing the use of imported oil and gas fuels. Under the forthcoming rules, all new buildings occupied or owned by public bodies will need to be zero-emission by 2028, and all new buildings from 2030 onwards. Member States need to clearly plan the measures taken to decarbonize heating systems in order to phase out fossil fuels in heating and cooling by 2040. From 2025, stand-alone fossil fuel boilers will no longer receive subsidies, but hybrid heating systems that use renewable energy will be eligible for financial incentives. Editor/Xu Shengpeng

• 2024.03.18 18:09
• [Germany plans to build fusion power plants]
• Germany's Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has announced a new fusion research funding program aimed at paving the way for the construction of the first fusion power plant in Germany by 2040. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has long supported fusion research at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching and Greifswald, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Jurich Research Centre (FZJ). "This institutional funding is complemented by the second pillar of the new Project Funding Scheme," the ministry said. "The project funding aims to advance the technologies, components and materials required for fusion power plants in the first phase by the early 2030s. The second phase focuses on integration into the power plant design. The funding program is open to technology and addresses so-called magnetic confinement and laser fusion technology." In order to achieve the construction of fusion power stations as soon as possible, the program is essentially application-oriented collaborative research as a form of public-private partnership. Projects on specific sub-technologies will be carried out jointly by research institutions, universities and industry. This allows new findings from the research to be applied at an early stage and know-how to be transferred to domestic industries for further use, the ministry said. Editor/Xu Shengpeng