China cans 103 planned coal plants to curb smog and reduceover supply

The Huaneng's Dalate coal-fired-electricity-generating
 station towers stand near Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.

Beiijing: China is cancelling plans to build more than 100 coal-fired power plants, seeking to rein in runaway, wasteful investment in the sector while moving the country away from one of the dirtiest forms of electricity generation, the government announced in a directive made public this week.

The announcement, made by China's National Energy Administration, cancels 103 projects that were planned or under construction, eliminating 120 gigawatts of future coal-fired capacity. That includes dozens of projects in 13 provinces, mostly in China's coal-rich north and west, on which construction had already begun. Those projects alone would have had a combined output of 54 gigawatts, more than the entire coal-fired capacity of Germany, according to figures compiled by Greenpeace.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age - “China cans 103 planned coal plants to curb smog and reduceover supply.”