How far is coal power from green electricity?

Gardening coal power with "green equipment" is an important part of energy transformation. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration recently released the "Action Plan for Low-Carbon Transformation and Construction of Coal and Electricity (2024-2027)", clarifying that by 2025, the first batch of low-carbon coal-fired transformation and construction projects will be started, and a batch of coal-fired low-carbon power generation technology will be transformed and applied. By 2027, the coal-fired low-carbon power generation technology route will be further broadened, and construction and operating costs will be significantly reduced, which will play a strong leading role in the clean and low-carbon transformation of coal-fired power. This means that after my country builds the world's largest clean coal power supply system, it will promote the continued greening of coal power.

Based on the basic national conditions of rich coal, poor oil and little gas, my country has gradually formed a power system with coal power as the main body. While supporting economic development, coal power also brings ecological and environmental problems. Under the "double carbon" goal, we must promote green and low-carbon development of energy and gradually get rid of dependence on fossil energy. Considering the instability of new energy power and the high cost of new energy storage technologies, the power system will still be inseparable from coal and electricity protection for a long time. Therefore, accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of coal and electricity is a realistic choice to support the goal of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

In order to promote the efficient and clean development of the coal and electricity industry, my country has vigorously promoted the implementation of ultra-low emission and energy-saving renovations by coal-fired enterprises since 2014, and guided the pollutant emissions of new coal-fired units to basically reach or approach the gas turbine emission limits. After continuous transformation, the annual emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and smoke from the coal and electricity industry have dropped significantly, and the standard coal consumption for power supply has also shown a significant downward trend, reaching the world's advanced level. By the end of 2023, more than 95% of my country's coal-fired power units will achieve ultra-low emissions. The actual feeling of the people is that the sky is bluer and the air is better.

Although air pollutant emissions from active coal-fired power units have generally reached the level of natural gas power generation, the problem of high carbon emissions has not been effectively solved. my country's energy sector carbon emissions account for more than 80% of the country's total carbon emissions, of which power carbon emissions account for more than 50% of the energy industry, and most of them come from coal power. For a long time, my country has mainly reduced carbon emissions by reducing coal consumption per unit of power generation. As the energy efficiency level of coal-fired power units becomes higher and higher, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve sustained carbon reduction by this method alone. If we want to achieve the "double carbon" goal as scheduled, we must use technical methods such as source-end carbon reduction and end-end carbon fixation to accelerate the low-carbon transformation of coal and electricity.

What effect should the low-carbon transformation of coal and electricity achieve? According to the Action Plan, by 2027, the carbon emissions of relevant projects will be close to the carbon emission level of natural gas power generation units. The reason why the benchmark gas-fired electric machinery was chosen is because natural gas power generation is an internationally recognized clean energy source and a supporting power source and coal-fired alternative power source for developed economies in Europe and the United States in recent years. Its carbon emissions are only half of that of coal-fired electricity. Due to my country's high dependence on natural gas, natural gas power generation has not become the mainstream, accounting for only 3.2% of power generation. If the carbon emissions of coal-fired electricity can be significantly reduced through low-carbon transformation, it will be equivalent to building a large number of new gas-fired electric machinery units in a short period of time, which can effectively alleviate the pressure of carbon peaking while ensuring energy security.

How to achieve low-carbon transformation of coal and electricity? There are currently three relatively mature routes: First, biomass blending, making full use of biomass resources such as agricultural and forestry waste, sandy plants, and energy plants, and implementing coal-fired units coupled with biomass power generation. The second is the blending of green ammonia, which uses surplus electricity from renewable energy such as wind power and solar power generation to produce green hydrogen and synthesize green ammonia through electrolysis of water, and implements the blending of green ammonia in coal-fired units to generate electricity. The third is carbon capture, utilization and storage. Chemical methods, adsorption methods, membrane methods and other technologies are used to separate and capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired boiler flue gas, implement resource utilization such as efficient oil displacement and methanol preparation, or implement geological storage according to local conditions. In recent years, my country has actively promoted the above-mentioned technical verification and has a large-scale demonstration foundation.

Faced with many technical routes, how do companies choose? The key is to adapt measures to local conditions. To implement a biomass co-burning project, the location should have long-term stable and available biomass resources such as agricultural and forestry waste, sandy plants, and energy plants. In terms of green ammonia blending, the location should have a reliable source of green ammonia and rich renewable energy resources to meet the needs of green ammonia preparation. To implement carbon capture, utilization and storage projects, the location and surrounding areas should have carbon dioxide resource utilization scenarios or long-term stable geological storage conditions.

It should be noted that no matter which technical route is applied, it cannot significantly increase the operating pressure of the company. In recent years, affected by multiple factors, coal and electricity companies have suffered widespread losses and poor financial conditions. If the burden on enterprises is further increased, it is likely to affect the sustainable development of coal-fired power companies and the safe and stable supply of electricity. In view of the high operating costs of coal-fired low-carbon transformation and construction projects at this stage, relevant departments should provide support for project construction from various aspects such as financial support, policy support, optimized scheduling, and technological innovation to improve long-term operating benefits and effectively stimulate coal-fired power. Enthusiasm for low-carbon transformation and construction.