China closes more small thermal power plants
15/8/2007 16:33
China shut down small thermal power plants with the installed capacity
totaling 6.95 million kilowatts in the first half of the year, completing about
70 percent of the pre-set goal in this regard in 2007.
That was learned from
an ongoing national meeting of the State Development and Reform Commission held
in Guiyang on construction of big-capacity power plants and closure of smaller
ones in south China.
China has seen a rapid growth of power industry in the
recent years, and by 2006 the country's totaled installed capacity rose to 622
million kw, of which, 75 percent were from coal-fired thermal power plants which
have turned out to be energy consuming and heavy polluting as well, said sources
from the meeting.
The country has set out goals of reducing per-unit gross
domestic product (GDP) energy consumption and discharge of main pollutants by 20
percent and 10 percent respectively by the year of 2010 according to comparable
figures of 2005.
To this end, China decided to close small coal-fired
generating units totaling 50 million kw, and fuel-fired power plants with
capacities totaling between 7 million to 10 million kilowatts during the
2006-2010 period.
Small thermal power plants with installed capacity below
100,000 kw each totaled 115 million kilowatts, accounting for about 30 percent
of installed thermal power capacity. They contributed nearly 40 percent of the
14 million tons of sulfur dioxide discharged into the air by the country's power
industry last year.
If the generating units with small capacities are
replaced by those with big capacities, the country could be spared from
discharge of 2.2 million tons of sulfur dioxide each year.
Xinhua
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