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Beijing to phase out coal-fired heating in core areas

Beijing's central Xicheng District and Dongcheng District will bid farewell to smokey coal-fueled stoves by the end of the year, Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said on November 10.

A total of 23,800 households from the two downtown districts will not use coal as their primary source of heat this winter. The last nine coal sales spots in the two districts will be closed.

The local residents are encouraged to use clean energy, such as electricity, as a substitute for coal to help improve air quality.

A project was launched in 2000 to replace household stoves in bungalows with electric radiators in the core areas of the capital, helping the city to reduce its major pollutants over the past 16 years, the bureau said.

So far, a total of 308,000 households from the Dongcheng District and Xicheng District have changed their heating system to cleaner sources because of the project.

Environmental monitoring results shows that Beijing's annual average density of sulfur dioxide, a major air pollutant, has been reduced from 120 micrograms per cubic meter in 1998 to 13 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015.

Beijing has shut down the third of its four major coal-fired power plants – Guohua thermal power plant -- as part of the government’s campaign to cut pollution in the smog-hit city, official media Xinhua news agency reported on March 20.

In 2013, the municipal government of Beijing rolled out a clean air action plan to bring annual coal consumption down to less than 10 million tonnes by 2017, a reduction of 13 million tonnes in just four years.

The final coal-fired power plant in the city – Huaneng thermal power plant -- is scheduled to close next year, Xinhua said.

 source: http://en.sxcoal.com