Development of China’s Coal-Fired Power Plants in the Coming Years

Among the measures aimed at reducing emissions of technogenic “greenhouse gases” (primarily CO2), China plans to halve the total installed capacity of its coal-fired power plants in operation from 1008 GW in 2019 to about 500 GW by 2060. The maintenance of the required power generation and its increase are carried out through the advanced growth of the installed capacity of wind power plants (WPP) and solar power plants on photovoltaic cells (SPP), but also commissioning new powerful hydro and nuclear power plants, as well as highly efficient coal-fired steam-turbine-based power units (CFSTBPUs) with the single capacity of 600 – 660, 1000 – 1050, and 1350 MW, ultra-supercritical (USC) steam pressure, main and reheat steam temperatures of 600 – 620°C. It is also planned to reconstruct a part of the numerous subcritical 300 MW CFSTBPUs in operation with an increase in their main and reheat steam temperatures from 537 to 600°C, as well as to modernize some previously commissioned USC CFSTBPUs. Shanghai Shenergy Power Technology presented the highest values of net efficiency for newly commissioned and reconstructed CFSTBPUs according to field tests carried out by GE and Siemens. As a rule, the newly commissioned and reconstructed CFSTBPUs are supposed to be able to participate in covering the daily and weekly unevenness of power consumption, as well as in ensuring the reliability of power supply during uncontrolled declines in the power generation of wind and solar power plants. © 2021, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.