Clean energy programs need not be expensive, experts say

China is improving energy efficiency as a highly cost-effective way of increasing availability of power and tackling the country's energy-shortage problem, experts say.

Despite the investment in clean-energy technologies, the country still relies heavily on coal and oil for its energy needs and will continue to be well into the future.

Vinod Thomas, director-general of independent evaluation at the Asian Development Bank, says the Chinese government must encourage measures to curb energy consumption and increase the use of all types of clean energy, such as wind and solar power.

Thomas says energy efficiency is the least expensive way of increasing energy supplies. Using energy-efficient equipment, such as generators powered by gas or solar energy, would cost about half as much as using coal.

"Energy efficiency measures are among the most inexpensive and profitable options for greenhouse gas abatement," says Thomas, noting that these include energy-efficient retrofits of existing buildings and industrial equipment.

Many low-income countries see cost as a barrier to implementing clean-energy programs, but Thomas says this does not have to be the case.

"Governments and their development partners can play a vital role in removing barriers to boosting energy-efficient investments, such as the poor awareness of readily available energy-efficiency options and the perception among banks that these investments are high-risk."

Comprehensive standards and labeling programs to improve the energy efficiency of appliances and equipment can bring sizable energy savings. Among the key components of such programs are setting energy-efficiency performance standards for equipment and technical requirements.

Continued improvements in power generation efficiency have been best demonstrated in China through its much-publicized program to build new coal-fired power plants to feed rising demand, as well as replace small, old and inefficient coal-fired plants built during the past half century. As a result, average coal consumption for power generation has declined.

Frank Clemente, professor emeritus of social science at Penn State University in the US and editor of the International Energy Agency report "The Global Value of Coal", said in a commentary recently: "Clean coal is the global path out of poverty for 1.3 billion people who have no electricity.

"China is the prime example of the benefits of increased electricity from coal. The socioeconomic progress of China over the past several decades is the most important societal achievement of our time - and coal is the cornerstone of that growth."

Since 1990, coal-based electricity in China has increased 650 percent.

Discharge of particulate matter per unit of electricity has decreased 97 percent over the past 30 years.

Since 2005, relative emissions of sulfur dioxide have decreased 64 percent. With smaller coal units due to be retired, desulfurization will soon be in place at virtually every coal plant in China. Relative nitrous oxide emissions decreased 8 percent in the past year alone, and reduced mercury emissions are a significant co-benefit of these new controls.

With these technological innovations, coal in the 21st century will perform even better over time.

There are about 430 gigawatts of advanced coal units online or being built worldwide, and more than 175 gW of these are in China.

"China is already building some of the cleanest power plants in the world along the eastern coast," Clemente says. "At Yuhuan, Zhejiang province, for example, China Huaneng Group operates four 1,000- megawatt advanced generating units at a thermal efficiency more than 20 percent better than the global average.

"Such supercritical and ultra-supercritical facilities produce far more power per unit of fuel than traditional plants, and have far fewer emissions."

karlwilson@chinadailyapac.com

(China Daily European Weekly 08/30/2013 page15)