How Much Do You Know About The PV Olympics?

The most talked about event this summer is undoubtedly the Paris Olympics. The eyes of the world are gathered in this quadrennial event, cheering for the Olympic athletes.
In addition to the intense competition, some people have summarised the Paris Olympics as a number of "firsts". For example: not set up the main stadium, the competition is approaching the stadium is not yet finished repair, the athletes dormitory does not provide air conditioning, vegetarian food has become the staple food of the athletes, gold medals to iron as the main material, the transfer of athletes to and from the bus, the Olympic press conference hall even stools are not enough journalists can only sit on the ground......
These seemingly "unthinkable" behaviour, in fact, with the Paris Olympic Games Organising Committee's "commitment to environmental protection".

The Paris Organising Committee has pledged to organise a green and sustainable sporting event, aiming to reduce carbon emissions to half of the average emissions of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
To this end, for the first time, the Paris Games have set a "carbon budget", limiting carbon emissions to no more than 1.58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for the entire event. During the Games, 100 per cent of green electricity will be generated by wind power and photovoltaics.
As the most cost-effective and adaptable clean energy source, PV+Olympics will bring out what kind of green energy? Let's explore the PV elements in the Olympic Games.
PV+Paris Olympic Village
In order to cope with the hot weather, the Paris Olympic Organising Committee has taken a variety of measures, such as laying light-coloured floor tiles to enhance light reflection, and pumping cold water into the flats using the ground temperature cooling system.
Laurent Michaux, director of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Village, said in an interview that one-third of the roofs of the buildings in the Olympic Village are equipped with photovoltaic panels for power generation and cooling. This design model not only reduces the waste of resources, but also reduces carbon emissions during the construction process.

Olympic Village (Source: olympics paris 2024 official website)

Picture of the Olympic and Paralympic Village buildings in Paris with solar panels on the roofs Source : AFP

In addition to not installing air conditioning, the construction of the venues for this year's Paris Olympics follows this concept.
One of the permanent sports venues built specifically for the 2024 Paris Games, the Aquatics Centre is a decarbonised venue, with all construction materials being bio-based. Its wooden structure and roof frame have been carefully designed to blend in with the surrounding green space. 5,000 square metres of the roof are covered with photovoltaic panels, one of the largest urban solar farms in France, providing the centre with the energy it needs.

Image Aquatic Centre Source: olympics paris 2024 official website

In addition, a floating solar power plant, designed to promote the flow of renewable energy, will float on the Seine during the Olympic Games. The plant, which is covered with 720 square metres of photovoltaic panels, is scheduled to be reused elsewhere after the Games.

Carbon reduction and green running have long been mandatory topics for the Olympic Games. In addition to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the previous Olympic Games also have the figure of photovoltaic power generation.

2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

On 4 February 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games officially opened. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian, the 26 venues in the three major competition zones of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be supplied with 100% green electricity for the first time in history, with its green electricity mainly coming from the Zhangbei region of Hebei.

It is understood that the winter olympics competition area green power supply from the wind and water, through the zhangbei flexible direct current project, the newly built in the city, kambanor, fukang and yanqing 4 converter station successfully come to Beijing, which in the city, kambanor converter station for the sending end of the access to the new energy, fukang station for the regulating end of the access to the pumped storage yanqing station for the acceptance of the end of the power supply for the winter olympics yanqing competition area stadiums directly.
Zhangjiakou Huailai County actively take advantage of the geographical terrain, in the Olympic corridor near the barren mountains to build pieces of photovoltaic projects. At present, Zhongshan Mahuangyu PV power station 10 MW Olympic PV corridor project has been completed into the grid-connected power generation stage.
By the end of the 2022 Winter Paralympics, the Winter Olympic venues are expected to consume a total of about 400 million kWh of green electricity, which is expected to reduce the burning of standard coal by 128,000 tonnes and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 320,000 tonnes.

2020 Tokyo Olympics

The Organising Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has announced that the Tokyo Olympics will be entirely powered by renewable energy.

All seven major venues will be equipped with solar power generation facilities, and "100 per cent renewable energy" will be used for power supply.

In addition, the Olympic Village and other Olympic-related facilities will be powered by renewable energy sources such as solar power or biomass.

Solar panels at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza

Rio 2016 Olympic Games
The Brazilian National Stadium for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, installed with about 9,600 solar panels totalling 2.5 megawatts (MW), will be able to meet the energy needs of about 2,000 householders per day.

When completed, the solar array will occupy three-quarters of the stadium's roof, making the Brazilian National Stadium the world's first self-generated energy stadium. In addition, excess power from the photovoltaic system will be supplied to other cities.

2008 Beijing Olympics

The main stadium of the Beijing Olympic Games, the "Bird's Nest", started construction on 24th December 2003 and was completed on 28th June 2008. 12 main corridors were installed above the solar photovoltaic power generation system with a total installed capacity of 130 kilowatts, and the power will be directly integrated into the national stadium's power supply system, playing a good complementary role to the power supply of the Olympic venues. The power will be directly connected to the National Stadium's power supply system, which will complement the power supply of the Olympic venues.

Although the overall installed capacity is not very high, photovoltaic power generation was already used in the design and construction of the stadium before 2003, which is a relatively advanced application in the international arena.

Sports and photovoltaics, both shine in their respective fields, but find resonance at the intersection of the times.

Sports is the arena of human spirit. Every jump and every sprint is a challenge to the limit and the pursuit of dreams. Photovoltaic, on the other hand, is a harmonious symbiosis of science and technology and nature, which is powered by endless light energy, lighting up the light of hope for a green life.

We look forward to seeing more green sports programmes emerge, so that people can also contribute to the future of the planet while participating in sports. At the same time, we also believe that with the advancement of technology and people's environmental awareness, photovoltaic technology will be applied in more fields, contributing to the goal of carbon neutrality and the building of a community of human destiny.