Jiangsu province launched a campaign to shut down small-capacity coal-fired heating units and small boilers on June 2 in an effort to clean the air.
Jiangyin, Changshu and Taicang, three cities which have highly concentrated small thermal power plants and small boilers, were listed as the first batch of pilot cities.
Fire coal has been one of the main contributors of air pollutants in Jiangsu. Three approaches will be applied to reduce air pollutants, namely, encourage the use of large-capacity heating units, integrate heat suppliers in the region, and promote clean energy, according to Dai Yueqiang, deputy director of the Commission of Economy and Information Technology of Jiangsu. The efforts will make a difference on the total consumption of coal and help to achieve the goal of clean air throughout the province
. In addition to replacing small-capacity generating units with large-capacity ones, and weeding out coal-fired boilers while adding new heat sources in the eight provincially-administered municipalities along the Yangtze River, new coal-fired power plants will not be built any more and the new demand for electricity will be met by channeling electricity from outside the region.
