A small coal-fired power plant in Shandong Province of east
China was demolished on Sunday as the local government began to
respond to a call from the central government to save energy and
cut pollution.
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Many local residents climbed up a nearby hill to witness the
removal of three 50,000-kw generating units from Baiyanghe Power
Plant, a subsidiary of China Huaneng Group, in the city of
Zibo.
"Now at last these furnaces are gone," said 56-year-old Sun
Guorui, who has lived in the city for more than 30 years. "They
gave out a suffocating odor and all the nearby trees have been
turned black."
The Shandong Branch of China Huaneng Group, the country's major
electricity producer, said it would replace the small,
energy-guzzling coal-fired facilities with two 300,000-kw
thermoelectric generating units that will cut energy consumption by
at least 40 percent.
"The new plant will save 270,000 tons of standard coal a year,"
said Zeng Xianfu, deputy general manager of the group's Shandong
Branch. "Meanwhile, it will cut the annual emission of sulfur
dioxide and dust by 10,400 tons and 42 million tons
respectively."
"We plan to close down coal-fired power plants with a combined
generating capacity of 4 million kilowatts over the next four
years, an estimated reduction of 120,000 tons of sulfur dioxide,"
said Fei Yunliang, head of the provincial development and reform
commission.
Closing down power plants that consume vast quantities of energy
and emit severe pollution is a major component of the Chinese
government's energy saving and emission control goals set for the
11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).
China plans to shut down small coal-fired power plants with a
total electricity generating capacity of 50 million kilowatts
between 2006 and 2010.
The power industry consumes one third of China's total energy
consumption and is responsible for half of the country's total
sulfur dioxide emissions, according to figures provided by the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's
top economic planning agency.
Coal-fired power plants, meanwhile, are to blame for one third
of the total sulfur dioxide and half of the dust produced by the
entire industry, according to the NDRC.
Earlier this week, the NDRC ordered local authorities to remove
preferential policies for energy guzzlers amid the nation's efforts
to save energy and cut pollution.
It warned local governments not to violate laws, regulations and
policies by introducing preferential policies such as tax cuts to
attract new high energy-consuming projects in the future.
"Local governments should set stricter market access standards
to help eliminate outdated production facilities and tighten land
use and credit supply for new projects," the NDRC said on its
website.
The Chinese government has set a goal of reducing energy
consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent by
2010 and pollutant discharge should drop by 10 percent.
Energy consumption, however, fell only 1.23 percent last year,
less than one third of the annual goal of 4 percent.
Most of the high-energy industries, including steel,
electrolytic aluminum and cement, saw a rebound in growth in the
first quarter of the year after China introduced cooling measures
in 2003, said the NDRC.
The six sectors of power, steel, oil refinery, chemicals,
construction materials and metals consume 70 percent of energy for
industrial use and release the same percentage of sulfur
dioxide.
The output of these sectors grew 20.6 percent in the first
quarter, 6.6 percentage points higher than the same period last
year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month.
Wen pledged China would push forward reforms in the pricing of
natural gas, water and other resources, raise the tax levied on
pollutant discharge, establish a "polluter pays" system and
severely punish those who violate the environmental protection
laws.
The premier said the economy could hardly be sustainable if
China failed to adjust the economic structure, transform the growth
mode, and reduce energy consumption.
(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2007)
