BEIJING- China plans to cut carbon emissions in its coal power industry by piloting the firing of power plants using coal mixed with either green ammonia or biomass, as well as by carbon capture, utilization and storage.
Carbon-intensive coal power continues to be the primary source of energy in the world’s top energy consumer, though the government is working to develop renewable energy supplies.
The new approaches were listed in a government plan issued jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.
The government encourages local authorities to support and subsidize low-carbon projects. Still, analysts questioned the feasibility of deploying new technologies given the high costs.
“Biomass power plants in China are not financially viable without subsidies, largely due to inadequate fuel supply,” said Shen Xinyi, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“I’m not certain it’s wise to burn green ammonia in coal power plants (given the costs), especially when there is still potential to increase the use of renewable power, such as by enhancing inter-province power trade and improving the flexibility of coal power plants,” Shen said.
The government plan set carbon emissions from electricity generated using natural gas as the benchmark for the coal power sector.
It said the first low-carbon projects using some of the new approaches will start operating by next year. The average emission of those projects will be 20 percent lower compared with 2023 levels.
By 2027, the government aims to expand low-carbon projects and lower operating costs, as well as cut average carbon emissions by 50 percent from 2023 levels.
Meanwhile, the predicament of solar panel giant Longi Green Energy Technology suggests China risks repeating an investment boom and bust cycle that culminated in the European Union and the United States slapping anti-dumping duties on the world’s second-largest economy a decade ago.
The $15 billion company warned last week it would log a net loss in the first half of up to 5.5 billion yuan, around $750 million, reversing a profitable run. It blames a supply-demand mismatch that has driven down prices of panel components including solar cells.
The scale of the problem is impressive. China’s solar cell production capacity totaled 1,000 gigawatts last year, more than double global demand, which might in a bullish scenario only reach 980 GW by 2035, per Oxford Economics. Solar modules are now so cheap that in Europe they are being used as garden fences, Wood Mackenzie notes.
