A bus powered by a hydrogen battery has run for 3,000 kilometres around Shanghai in April and the battery system is still sound for further use. Driven by the new energy, the first vehicle of such kind can run as fast as 80 kilometres an hour and continue to run for 300 kilometres before the battery needs to be recharged.
The lamps outside some of the Olympic stadiums under construction in Beijing are powered by solar energy. Compound fuel for cars is being researched and if researchers can figure out how to use it in vehicles, it is expected to save 25 per cent more fuel, maybe even more, compared to gas currently used.
This suggests the development of new energy has enormous potential to ease the energy crisis in the near future and reduce air pollution caused by car emissions.
Our quest for new energy sources is necessary in that it will not only ease our reliance on dwindling reserves of non-renewable fossil fuels, but also considerably reduce carbon dioxide discharge from the use of traditional fuels. The air polluted by gas emitted from motor vehicles is a major health hazard in our cities.
Finding or developing clean energy resources has a significant bearing not only on economic development in the foreseeable future but also the future of later generations.
China needs to make breakthroughs in this area. It is already the second-largest oil-consuming nation after the United States.
Further economic growth will improve living standards for an even larger proportion of our 1.3 billion people. It is quite natural that our consumption of coal and oil will increase further.
On the other hand, there is the prediction that if gas consumption in cars could be reduced by 40 per cent, 50 million tons of oil would be saved a year, which is half the amount of the country's imported oil.
If all the motor vehicles could be powered by alternative energies in the near future, the country would make a considerable contribution to the world by saving energy resources and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The use of solar energy for lamps in the construction of stadiums or gyms for the 2008 Olympic Games has set a good example for other construction projects nationwide.
If more construction projects follow suit, the country may save even more and cut down substantially on pollution.
China still has a long way to go before new and clean energy is widely used. But the hydrogen battery-powered bus, compound fuel and increasing use of solar energy give us hope.
