China targets to cut coal consumption in non-power sectors

China plans to further slash coal consumption in non-power sectors in some pollution-prone areas in 2024, as part of its move to reduce the country's energy consumption and meet its carbon emission goals for the year, according to a work plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction during 2024-25 issued by the State Council on May 29 evening.

For 2024, the country targets to reduce its energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP by 2.5% and 3.9%, and it will also lower its energy use per unit of added value of Chinese industrial enterprises above designated size by 3.5% this year, as reported.

To achieve the goals, China will continue to propel technical revamps of coal-fired power generating units in carbon reduction, flexibility improvement and heat supply ability. Besides, it will also move to shut down coal-fired boilers for consolidation and replace coal with clean energies used in industrial furnaces, according to the plan.

By end-2025, China is expected to completely ban the use of "scattered coal" – a low-rank coal primarily used by households in the country's northern plain areas for cooking and heating and causing heavy pollution – in key pollution control regions. And coal boilers and other coal-fired facilities with capacities at or below 35 t/h will be basically phased out by 2025.

Additionally, newly constructed and expanded coal-consuming projects in key pollution-prone areas of the country should conduct equivalent or lower coal consumption replacement. Meanwhile, China will also control the semi-coke industry scale.

The country also looks to control petroleum consumption while boosting unconventional gas exploitation. By end-2025, China's non-fossil-fuels are expected to contribute a higher 39% of the country's total electricity generation, the plan said.

Written by Tammy Yang, yangfangb@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com