www.chinaview.cn
Jul 30,2009
China shut down smaller coal-fuelled power plants with a total generating capacity of 54.07 million kilowatts from 2006 to the end of June this year, an energy official said here Thursday.
The country is a year and a half ahead of schedule to achieve a goal of shutting down 50 million kilowatts of such power plants by 2010, said Sun Qin, deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Because of the closures, average coal consumption by plants has been lowered by 30 grams to 340 grams a kilowatt, which equated to 160 million tonnes of coal saved, compared to the beginning of 2006.
In addition, sulfur dioxide emissions were cut by 1.06 million tonnes a year, and carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 124 million tonnes annually, after the program was complete, said Sun.
The proportion of power generating units in China with capacity above 300,000 kilowatts was lifted to 64 percent of total plants in operation by the end of June this year, up 20 percentage points from the beginning of 2006, while those with capacity below 100,000 kilowatts dropped to 14 percent, down 16 percentage points.