China to get tough on thermal power plant emissions
China has announced that it plans to enforce stricter limits on emission standards for the country’s thermal power plants.
China has announced that it plans to enforce stricter limits on emission standards for the country’s thermal power plants.
Emissions from thermal power plants are one of the main sources of pollution in the Asian country, with the government hoping that the proposals will help curb the worsening environmental degradation.
"The thermal power industry has to greatly reduce polluting emissions ... because the environmental capacity is limited," China’s Deputy Environment Minister Wu Xiaoqing told China Daily. He added that the country is facing increasing pressure to mitigate its emissions and tackle pollution."With the new standards, the thermal power industry alone will have to slash 5.8 million tons of nitrogen dioxide and 6.18 million tons of sulfur dioxide by 2015," Wu said.
In the first half of 2011 the average air quality in 45 of china’s major cities was rated as “poor”.
According to a report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection emissions from substances that included sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot used in thermal power stations are set to be reduced. Mercury, produced by gas-fired boilers in the burning of coal and its emissions, are also going to be set to a national limit.
Emission levels in the country’s capital, Beijing, will also be subject to stricter standards in so-called environmentally-sensitive regions, according to the report.
The legislation will take effect from the January 1st 2012, which has the potential to cost the thermal power industry in China $40.74 billion by 2015, as companies strive to meet the standard requirements.
At the end of 2010, thermal power accounted for 73 percent of the total power generating capacity in China at 707 gigawatts.
