Coal Power Projects Research Articles

Media Advocacy on Health Hazards of CPEC's Coal Power Project: The Sustainable Development Goal#3 is under threat

Media Advocacy on Health Hazards of CPEC's Coal Power Project: The Sustainable Development Goal#3 is under threat

China’s Economic Initiatives and their Impact on Environmental Governance of Global Infrastructure Projects

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have raised concerns among critics about their potential negative impact on global environmental governance. These China-led initiatives may lower the environmental and social safeguard standards of their infrastructure investments abroad to outcompete other international financial institutions (IFIs) like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank. This could trigger a race to the bottom in the global infrastructure investment market. The study found that while the BRI may have a significant influence on the norms and standards of development finance, the AIIB has only had limited impact. The market has become more concentrated rather than intensified competition. The ADB's standards have not been affected, but the World Bank may have been negatively impacted and reduced its project-level environmental safeguards. The negative impact extends beyond BRI countries to other countries. The most concerning finding relates to the substantial global investments in coal power projects under the BRI. To improve global sustainability, China and developed countries must collaborate to provide cleaner and more affordable infrastructure investment to developing countries.

Phasing out coal power in a developing country context: Insights from Vietnam

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in November 2021, Vietnam pledged to phase out unabated coal power by the 2040s or as soon as possible thereafter. Achieving this will require major efforts. This study investigates the drivers for Vietnam's coal power phase-out decision, barriers to Vietnam achieving a successful unabated thermal coal phase out, and potential strategies to achieve the pledge. To this end, a survey of 43 experts from government agencies, research institutions, civil society, and industry was carried out, supplemented by 23 follow-up interviews. The results indicate that ambition to attract international support for green growth initiatives in a context of limited financing options for new coal power projects appears to have been the primary driver for the decision. Key barriers include concerns about electricity shortages and incomplete regulatory frameworks for new clean power options. Recommended strategies include: 1) reforming regulations to facilitate investments in clean energy, electricity transmission, and energy storage; 2) continuing political prioritisation; and 3) building broad-based support from the community and enterprises. Vietnam's case is relevant to other developing countries and beyond.

The challenge of just transition in China’s coal power sector: a city-level employment vulnerability assessment

ABSTRACT China’s target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 entails the phase-out of high-emissions coal power. However, a just transition policy must be implemented, given that coal power and its upstream coal mining industry provide many employment opportunities. Leveraging a bottom-up tabular analysis, we assessed the impact on employment of coal-fired power plant closures in China’s 330 prefecture-level cities. We identify vulnerable areas for employment in the transition and propose a customized employment incentive policy through a vulnerability assessment framework. Results show that in 2020, the direct employment in the coal power industry was 1.68 million, among which 16.76% will be affected by the 2045 net-zero deadline for the power sector. This number will increase to 36.90% if coal power capacity increases to 1300GW by 2030. However, 92% of Chinese cities will not suffer from unemployment risks since cities with high employment vulnerability are mostly concentrated in coal resource-based cities like Shuozhou (Shanxi Province), Huainan (Anhui Province), and Yulin (Shaanxi Province). In addition, the contraction of China's coal power-related employment will emerge only after 2035; a transition management framework focusing on highly vulnerable areas should be established as soon as possible to protect the well-being of affected workers and facilitate a just transition. Key policy insights New coal power projects should be cut back as much as possible, and instead the service life of incumbent coal power units should be extended where necessary. If no new coal power plants are built after 2020, only 16.76% of existing employment will be affected by 2045, but the share would double if new units were added. In order to effectively manage a just transition, it is necessary to plan early and establish a comprehensive policy system that takes regional differences fully into account.

Forecasting Energy Consumption Using Calculation of CDDs in Pakistan Using Two Different Methods

Energy consumption has increased due to industrialization and other factors involved which gives the researchers to ponder upon the methods to set policy and forecast the need of energy in coming days. Pakistan with different cities comprising of various climatic zones, this study shown the highest CDDs in city of Hyderabad among large cities with high population flux and then followed by Karachi with 2nd highest CDDs among the mentioned cities with highest population and thus huge consumption of power, Quetta having lowest CDDs among the cities due to highland and cold climatic region. Pakistan location is affected by the GHGs aftermath is floods and different natural catastrophe as mentioned by UN because it is surrounded one of largest emitters of CO2 and Pakistan is 17th Largest emitter of GHGs. These natural catastrophes can be due to coal power projects emissions that are increasing day by day and effecting the local climate of Pakistan, but the neighboring countries emissions is also affecting the climate of Pakistan. There are two methods discussed in this paper and their results and validation are thus observed. The two methods are ASHRAEs method and Hitchens’s method. The aim is to calculate the CDDs of major cities or provincial capitals of Pakistan. The study will help policy makers to plan the power projects accordingly by considering the degree days in major cities of Pakistan. In this research climatic regions of the country were studied with the average temperatures taken for the calculation of CDDs of major cities of Pakistan and their data was procured from meteorological department of Pakistan to study the CDDs of the few cities. This is mostly used for prediction of monthly degree days using Hitchens’s method for month of year and can be conveyed to power generation and distribution companies. Hitchens’s method and ASHRAE were used, and it validated the calculation for every mentioned city in Pakistan. Due to simplicity ASHRAE came out as simple and balanced one and authenticated by most researchers worldwide.

China's Belt & Road Initiative coal power cooperation: Transitioning toward low-carbon development

Energy cooperation is a major part of China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). In particular, power generation projects play a significant role, especially coal power projects. In spite of its substantial impacts on China and the world, research on the BRI coal power projects is scarce. To provide a better picture of the BRI coal power cooperation, we analyze the evolutions, rationales, challenges, and prospects. Our finding reveals that the BRI coal power projects generate opportunity for the BRI participants, as coal energy can render electricity generation more efficient in these countries, mostly from developing world, with larger and cleaner plants, providing flexibility for greater integration of renewables. However, given sustainability concerns regarding coal power, our article suggests that the transition toward low-carbon energy systems should be pursued in the long-term with more focus on promoting innovations in energy efficiency, energy storage, and cleaner energies like gas, wind, and solar.

Russian energy projects in South Africa

From early 2019, South Africa and Russia have planned to increase their energy trade. Russia can become one of the world’s five largest energy exporters. This study examines of the cost of a kilowatt of electricity generated by coal power projects in South Africa and compares nuclear electricity with other types of green energy. This method must help to improve the management decision-making process in South Africa for energy exporta. Reasons for this persistence include the marketing strategies of Russian companies for seeking new markets in industrialised and postindustrial countries where, due to intensive competition, sales of Russian high-tech products are often unsuccessful. Renewable energy gives a chance to potentially reduce poverty in South Africa. The study concludes that imported crude oil is more suited to the needs of the refining industry of South Africa. The consumption for this type of energy in areas not concerning industry is insignificant and its increase is unlikely to be observed in the future. Highlights• Nuclear energy is popular energy source in South Africa now.• Provision of sustainable energy services helps to find the sources for economic growth. • Renewable energy technologies have opportunity for reduce nuclear production in South Africa.• Bio-energy can become the main source of energy in South Africa.

Environmental Stress Testing for China’s Overseas Coal Power Investment Project

The advance of the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative encourages increased overseas investment in coal power projects. However, it also brings about external environmental risks. In this paper, we use the approach of environmental stress testing to examine China’s overseas coal power investment projects by focusing on two countries: Indonesia and Vietnam. We first identify five key testing factors (i.e., coal price, utilization hours, exchange rate, carbon tax, and environmental protection requirements) by examining the market regulation and the environmental risks of coal power projects along the “Belt and Road” countries. Then, we observed changes in the enterprise value and internal rate of return (IRR) by setting different scenarios in which the values of the five stress factors varied. The results show that (1) the economics of coal-fired projects in Indonesia is most sensitive to exchange rate, while the economics of coal projects in Vietnam is most sensitive to coal price; (2) the pressure of nationally determined contributions (NDC) goals on environmental protection will push the “Belt and Road” countries to implement more stringent environmental regulation, which will reinforce environmental stress on overseas coal power investment. These results have important policy implications for the enterprise, industry, and Chinese government.

Is China returning to coal-fired power?

New figures suggest that China has a large number of coal power projects in the pipeline - many inherited from previous over-approving - that could jeopardise climate-change goals. China might be U-turning back towards dirty coal-fired power. Results of a new study found that the country has restarted construction on more than 50GW of suspended coal-fired power plants: as much as the entire coal fleet of Africa and the Middle East.

Coal power overcapacity in China: Province-Level estimates and policy implications

Since the project approval right was decentralized from the central government to the local governments in 2014 in China, a large quantity of coal power projects has been approved and built, resulting in low operation efficiency and calling for strict de-capacity policy. In this paper, we estimate coal power overcapacity with a cross-province power and energy balance model. We estimate the overcapacity situation in 2015 at 140–160 GW with a comprehensive dataset. The 2020 overcapacity scenario is estimated with detailed representation of official planning and new projects under construction. The results show that there is a general trend of growing overcapacity in most provinces by 2020 and the national excess scale will be around 210 GW under the basic scenario and may even reach 240–260 GW under a High scenario. Relevant policy suggestions are put forward to address the overcapacity issue.

Will recent boom in coal power lead to a bust in China? A micro-economic analysis

In this paper, by adopting the levelized cost of electricity model and the financial appraisal method, we provide an economic interpretation for China's recent coal power bubble under weak demand growth. The study surveys the economics of a typical 600MW newly-built pure condensing coal-fired power plant in six case provinces (Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Hebei, Jiangsu and Guangdong), where the profitability margins of coal power are above national average by the end of 2015. Results indicate that the continuous falling in coal prices have lowered the generation costs but there has been insufficient adjustment to the benchmark on-grid tariff, enabling coal power to obtain unprecedented excess profits. Such excess profits have spurred the investment and caused local government to over-rely on coal power under economic downturn. However, in the context of cost escalation by deteriorated operation efficiency, higher environmental and climate change compliance costs and fierce market competition, the profitability of coal power will dissipate soon. Integrated power capacity plan consistent with the new economic normal, stringent control on the scale of new coal power projects and deep power market reform are the key policy implications of our analysis.

Coal power overcapacity and investment bubble in China during 2015–2020

Electricity consumption growth in China has experienced radical adjustment from high speed to medium speed with the advent of new economy normal. However, the investment enthusiasm on coal power remains unabated and leads to continuous operation efficiency deterioration in recent years. In this paper, we quantify the rational capacity and potential investment of coal power in China during the 13th FYP period (2016–2020). By employing power planning model and fully considering the power sector's contribution in the 15% non-fossil primary energy supply target by 2020, we estimate that the reasonable capacity addition space of coal power ranges between 50GW and 100GW, depending on the expected range of demand growth. We find that if all the coal power projects submitted for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval were put into operation in 2020, capacity excess would reach 200GW. Such huge overcapacity will bring forth disastrous consequences, including enormous investment waste, poor economic performance of generators and more importantly, delay of low-carbon energy transition. Finally, policy recommendations are proposed to address this issue.

Suitability analysis of China's energy development strategy in the context of water resource management

Coal is China's most important primary energy source, and is supporting the rapid economic growth going on there. However, the reverse geographical distribution of coal production and consumption results in a high cost of coal transportation and low efficiency of coal utilization. To ease the pressure on coal transportation, and to mitigate pollution in eastern coastal regions, China has kicked off a strategic west–east transfer of energy industries that requires the movement of coal power projects to the arid northwest regions. Under this strategic framework, the regulation is focused on “clean production”, “consumption reduction” and “reuse”, rather than conservation and protection of water resources. This study found that the northwest areas are unable to accommodate fully the planned scale of coal-fired power industry. Moreover, the subsidiary chemical industry, even if the scale of electric power development is determined according to the need for coal production, is problematic because the current water demand for the coal industry has exceeded “allowed water withdrawal”. Given limited water saving potential and the huge demand-and-supply gap, it is also unrealistic to balance water demand by combination of water conservation in the power industry and water right diversion from agriculture. This study on the synergies between energy and water is urgently needed, in order to provide scientific and technological support for laying out new energy industries. A critical change should involve conciliation of conflicting policies or plans before implementation begins.

The Loy Yang 4000 MW Brown Coal Power Development

The paper covers the need for a major base load brown coal power project in the 1980' s and discusses the planning and some economic, technical and environmental aspects including public participation.