Spring 2008 Issue

A seminar on energy-efficient street lighting was held in Ningbo, Zhejiang province of China in January 2008. It was hosted by the local government, with the organization of ICA China’s “City Infrastructure” project,” a part of the SEE Initiative, to promote the application of energy-efficient street lighting in Ningbo.

Government officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ningbo Economic and Trade Committee, the Ningbo Urban Administration Bureau, and industry experts from the China Illuminating Engineering Society, National Urban Lighting Association and Fudan University, made presentations on relevant policies, technologies and demonstration projects. 120 people from Ningbo and other provinces attended the seminar. This was the first part of a three-seminar tour around the country on the City Infrastructure project’s Year 2008 schedule. The two other seminars will be held in the North and South of China in the middle and the end of this year, respectively.

As street lighting accounts for about 3-4% of China’s electricity consumption – while nearly 67% of China’s energy needs are met by coal – the potential for reducing adverse environmental impacts through EE street lighting clearly is very high.

On November 23, 2004, the government of China issued a Decree on Energy Conservation and Efficiency for Urban Lighting that recognized the potential benefits from effective implementation of policies that encourage energy efficiency. In addition, on August 9, 2005, the government reaffirmed the enforcement for the application of energy efficiency and energy conservation measures in urban lighting.

The City Infrastructure Project of ICA China’s SEE initiative plays an active role in the enforcement of EE street lighting policies. It has earned a positive reputation from great efforts and achievements made during the past three years.

To date, the project has been instrumental in the development of six energy efficiency standards for lighting products, as well as two national lighting design codes (one each for building and street lighting).

The project has been involved in international projects, such as the China Green Lights Project, providing advisory and technical assistance. Meanwhile, the project actively is looking for any opportunities of getting external funding from sources like the EU, or through creative financial measures, including Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Energy Service Company (ESCO).

The project has conducted several pilot projects and demonstrations on high-efficiency street lighting in collaboration with local street lighting administration bureaus, including Liaoning and Yunnan provinces, which have achieved 30-40% reduction in energy consumption and 20% more copper usage.

The project will trigger domestic demand for EE magnetic ballasts and other copper-intensive solutions for EE street lighting. The potential (conservative estimate) is around 10,000,000 ballasts that could be installed in the most populated provinces of China (assuming 264 municipalities representing about 215 million inhabitants). This would represent about ten kilotonnes of copper usage.

In the first quarter of 2008, the European Automotive team met with Leoni AG. an automotive wire harness producer, who presented directly the challenges facing them with regard to the uses of copper.

Although a long-term user of copper, the automotive industry clearly wishes to reduce cost, weight and CO2 emissions, and it is targeting the wire harness configuration to help overcome these challenges. Leoni, for the most part, would like to remain dedicated to copper. The European Copper Institute (ECI) committed to help find a copper-friendly solution to this, and enlisted the support of the Deutsches Kupferinstitut (DKI) and member companies to provide new investigations to help in this complex area. Following these discussions, the team was invited to visit the manufacturing facilities of Leoni AG .

Further contact with BMW resulted in a request for information on copper motor rotors as the BMW team had identified a benefit in looking at improving the efficiency of the induction motor. It became clear that the previous assessment, that permanent magnet motors were the preferred option, had been reconsidered in light of escalating costs of rare-earth raw materials, and specifically the permanent magnets themselves. A recent web-based exchange between copper motor rotor subject-matter experts, SEE and OEM team members provided a substantial body of evidence to support this work. Reference was also made to www.copper-motor-rotor.org.

In ICA’s 2007 – 2011 Strategic Plan, the Communications initiative is defined as a support function. As the term implies, the primary role of ICA Communications is to provide support to all of ICA’s other programs – particularly the market development programs.

The Strategic Plan also identifies Marketing Communications, or Marcom – support for ICA’s market development programs – as the primary key action of ICA’s Communications personnel around the world. A recurring goal for ICA’s Global Communications Team is to increase integration and effectiveness with ICA’s other programs, and the Team recently agreed to pioneer a new concept of assigning Communications “Team Champions” to each of ICA’s programs.

Each member of ICA’s Global Communications Team (a Communications manager from each of ICA’s four primary regions, plus the Team leader) has been named Team Champion to at least one other ICA initiative. All initiatives have been accounted for, including market development, technical and support functions. The role of the Team Champion will be to:

• Identify opportunities within ICA’s programs for communications support and improvement, and for developing external media relations opportunities
• Demonstrate a higher level of regular, documented interaction with a specific ICA program (including attendance at relevant meetings and teleconferences)
• Work with ICA’s program managers to develop effective Marcom strategies and activities
• Develop high-priority issues for the Communications function
• Ensure each member of the Global Communications Team is up-to-date on activities and advancements within each ICA program initiative, for cross-regional promotion

A methodology to facilitate this increased level of integration is in development. Potential resource-driven issues have been identified, and will be further explored as this initiative progresses.

ICA’s MIDM initiative already has made significant progress on projects planned for 2008.

Work is underway on various activities, such as the ICA annual global substitution study, refinement of the global copper use dataset, audit development and the recently crystallized Global Trends initiative.

The 2008 ICA in-house substitution survey now is nearing completion. This year, substantially more survey replies were received from the Network, compared with the highly successful 2007 survey. Preliminary information shows that, for this latest survey, around 270 interviews were conducted worldwide. The interviews covered upwards of 231 organizations, operating in a range of roles across the copper value chain. The largest proportion of replies received originated from North America (29% of total replies), followed by Latin America (17%) and Europe, with a 14% share. In regard to product coverage, 28% of replies covered plumbing tube, 12% covered architectural products, and building wire and commercial tube both accounted for 10% each of total replies. Amongst other channels, the results of this globally significant survey will be posted on the ICA Intranet.

The global copper use dataset continues to be refined with input from the Network and external sources. Through analysis of the information already collected, regional market-size data estimates have been refined in step with world copper-use levels. In particular, the dataset has been instrumental in more precisely defining copper use in explicit product sectors. In the first quarter of 2008, the dataset was further reviewed by the MIDM global team. The whole of the global dataset is scheduled to receive an annual update by the third quarter of this year.

With the addition of a new report, the level of research available for European copper markets continues to increase. Using import, export and production information as a guide, a new report, Copper Use In the Context of Import, Production and Export, presents an introductory view as to the flow of copper in Europe.

The recently crystallized Global Trends initiative will utilize the global MIDM capability to identify local, regional and worldwide trends for copper. In late February 2008, the MIDM global team discussed ideas for a working structure, which could enable the Global Trends initiative to operate smoothly and efficiently. In the call, a monthly global review process was defined and the Internet-based tools that will be used for harvesting and sharing trends internally, and on a global basis, were confirmed. In spite of the team identifying the best electronic tools for this initiative, the content of this service still requires significant groundwork. Global Trends for copper, and more information about this initiative, will be available via the ICA Intranet, once the level of content has been increased.

Copper has been used in Ayurveda - the traditional Indian medicinal system - for thousands of years and occupies a central place in most religious rituals in India.  Historically, Copper and its alloys have also been used extensively in architecture. Previous generations stored water in copper or brass pitcher pots overnight. The Indian psyche is therefore highly receptive to copper in a medicinal context.

However, due to the high relative costs of copper, its traditional use in various applications, including door handles, knobs and other touch surface areas, has been on the decline.

The International Copper Promotion Council – India (ICPCI) recently launched a Copper touch surfaces program, with the aim of increasing the use of copper touch surfaces in various public buildings, including hospitals, by leveraging traditional receptivity and supporting it with science.

The program formally was launched in Mumbai during International Infection Prevention Week, with an exclusive event attended by about 500 medical professionals. An expert panel of practicing doctors gave a series of presentations on copper’s antimicrobial properties. Since then, ICPCI has been invited to speak at seminars organized by the General Practitioners Association (GPA) and Indian Medical Association (IMA) covering over 2,000 medical professionals. The response at all these events has been highly encouraging.

ICPCI further participated in HOSPIMedica India 2008, which was the 14th international exhibition and conference on diagnostics, medical equipment and technology, held for the first time in Mumbai. The event presented an opportunity to meet the decision makers from India's healthcare sector, with four leading hospital equipment manufacturers of India showing keen interest in understanding the research further.

Going forward, the program’s key challenge is to bring together the highly fragmented supply chain on a common platform to develop and collaboratively market coppe/alloy products positioned around the antimicrobial theme. A dialogue has been initiated with fabricators from the Jamnagar Factory Owners Association, which has about 4,000 members. About 50 prominent members of the association were sensitized on the antimicrobial properties of copper, followed by a discussion about the prospective business opportunity for copper touch surface products. While the fabricators showed interest in the business opportunity, their dominant concern centered around the impact of tarnishing on aesthetics.

In Other News From Asia

With its commitment to sustainability and environmental friendliness, ICA China has partnered with the Mechanical & Power Engineering School of Shanghai Jiaotong University and Fuji Bus Air Conditioning (Dalian) Co., Ltd. to launch a project entitled: “Research on the Application of Copper Fin in Bus Air Conditioning Evaporator.” In this project, copper fins will take the place of aluminum in the current air conditioning system or public transportation buses, to improve cooling capacity and efficiency of the system, as well as to reduce the performance degradation of air conditioners after many years of use. Additionally, the aim is to kill bacteria and remove harmful gas by utilizing the antimicrobial performance of the copper heat exchanger, so as to improve the safety of public transportation.

The first batch of copper-fin air conditioners is expected to be set and tested in Beijing’s buses. For the next step, working together with the Disease Control and Prevention Department, the project team will research the characteristics of copper fins in preventing the spread of disease, to achieve real-time detection for the content of pathogenic bacteria in buses. This research also will determine the performance of copper heat exchangers in pathogenic bacteria killing, to conduct complete performance tests for aluminum and copper under same conditions, as well as the ability to compare test results.

A recent ECI end-user survey showed that poor power quality costs European business more than $225 billion each year. Communicating the size of this lost opportunity to industry leaders, and motivating them into action, is a priority for the Leonardo ENERGY program in 2008.

In 2007, detailed face-to-face interviews were held with 60 of the largest users of electricity across Europe’s manufacturing and service industries, with the target audience for the questionnaires representing sectors responsible for over 70% of the European Union’s economic output. The results showed an alarmingly low level of general management awareness of the importance, and cost, of poor electrical supply reliability. Amongst a staggering total cost of 150 billion €/year, several respondents admitted to lost opportunity costs of up to 10% of their annual turnover.

During 2008, ECI’s Leonardo ENERGY program, along with its industry and academic partners, will increase its messages on the economic consequences of poor power quality to industry leaders. Presentations on the questionnaire methodologies and findings already have been presented at two leading power quality and electricity conferences. A two-page publication also has been issued, with specific end-use sector messages planned throughout the year (the paper and pulp and chemicals industries will be the first targets).

The publications highlight the things to look out for, and the need for proper measurement and analysis, plus suggestions about what actions should then be considered. Virtually all power-quality improvement projects, such as the de-rating of equipment (motors, transformers, cabling), neutral sizing and increasing the use of filters and uninterruptible power supplies, increase the intensity of copper use.

ICA’s audit of ECI’s Power Quality program, carried out 18 months ago, showed an impact of 80 kilotonnes over the period 2000-2005, at an ICA investment cost of $43 per tonne.

Chile has implemented a purchasing guide for energy-efficient products, equipment and services. The initiative, aimed at the general public, seeks to promote an energy-efficient purchase whenever a product, equipment or service that uses energy must be bought.

Since energy-efficient products can use up to 90% less energy than non-efficient ones, the incorporation of these standards among the public sector may have a significant impact on energy consumption and, consequently, a substantial increase in demand for electrically efficient products, such as refrigerators, motors and air conditioning systems.

This Energy Efficiency Purchasing Guide, which contains recommendations and examples of saving energy, is part of a document drafted by the National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley. Collaborating partners are the Energy Program of Fundación Chile and the International Copper Association, which provided co-financing.

This contribution has a material effect on Chilecompras.cl (a Chilean purchasing web site), which, in collaboration with Programa País Eficiencia Energética, specified a guide with actions to be taken in order to use energy efficient criteria when acquiring or contracting an equipment or service that uses energy. More than 900 public departments will have these recommendations. The goal is that they will have to consider potential savings through consumption of less energy.

This type of guide is used in countries like China and the United States.

Further information is available at www.chilecompra.cl and www.ppee.cl

History was made in the United States on February 29, 2008, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially registered, with public health claims, 317 copper alloys under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This registration breathes new life into the global copper industry and marks the beginning of a path that we are clearing, and that our members must follow, to successfully bring products to market.

The registration was accompanied by a set of guidelines directing us to conduct outreach to the infection control community with the goal of educating them about the proper uses of antimicrobial copper products. As part of a stewardship role we are mandated to assume, we are building a Web site that will serve as one of many educational resources designed to provide the public with accurate information about both the efficacy and the use of these new products.

Registration with the EPA was necessary in gaining approval to legally make public health claims; however, it is not the end of the line. The next step to opening markets in the U.S. involves securing registration at the state level. In other words, to do business in a particular state within the U.S., a company must be registered with the appropriate regulatory body in that state. Although this will be more challenging in some states, where local regulatory bodies are more strict, it will pave the way for members to do business anywhere in the U.S.

While the mechanism for registration appears daunting, we are committed to developing an online process through which members can easily register their products. Our overarching goal of reducing bacterial loads on touch surfaces across the world, not only in hospitals but in other community facilities, as well, also should produce a beneficial byproduct: increased demand for copper and copper alloys.