China Energy Investment Corporation has put online a carbon capture project at one of its thermal coal power plants which will be the biggest in Asia. The carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) facility at the Taizhou coal power plant will have an annual capacity to store 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
This year, worries about power shortages could push China to rely more on coal to maintain the grid amid the growing demand for electricity, including from electric vehicles.
Presently, China is building or planning to build some 366 gigawatts in new coal generation capacity, accounting for some 68% of global planned new coal capacity as of 2022. Outside of China, coal generation capacity is declining, with 2.2 GW getting retired in Europe last year and 13.5 GW of capacity retired in the United States.
Carbon capture and storage is one of the options for China to mitigate emissions from coal as the world’s top energy consumer has stated it would aim to see its emissions peak by 2030.
Elsewhere, CCUS is gaining traction in the UK and the United States with major government support over the past year as part of the solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions and put the world on track to reach the Paris Agreement targets.