IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v282y2021ipbs0306261920316354.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of regional industrial electricity savings on the development of future coal capacity per electricity grid and related air pollution emissions – A case study for China

Author

Listed:
  • Yue, Hui
  • Worrell, Ernst
  • Crijns-Graus, Wina

Abstract

Moving to a sustainable industry and weaning electricity supply off coal are critical to mitigate ambient air pollution and climate change. This is particularly true in China which is globally the largest manufacturer and relies heavily on coal-fired electricity. Research that explores the linkages between industrial electricity use and the electricity supply sector to curb air pollution is limited. In this study, an integrated modeling framework is developed that quantifies the impact of industrial electricity savings on the evolution of the coal power plant fleet in China, and on air pollutants for the different power grids in the period 2016–2040. The framework includes a rich set of efficiency technologies and detailed unit-level information (geo-coordinates, thermal efficiency, environmental performance). We find that the reduced electricity load due to the industrial efficiency improvements can effectively scale down the coal power fleet, and most importantly allows closing the most polluting units. The potentials for electricity savings vary amongst the industrial sectors and provinces, resulting in significant heterogeneity of coal plant phaseout per power grid. Because energy-intensive industrial plants are mostly found in the North, Central and Northwest grids, these three grids provide 66% of the total displaced coal capacity. The closing of coal units leads to a variation in annual emission reductions per power grid of 13–85 kt-SO2, 19–129 kt-NOx, 3–17 kt-PM and 21–167 Mt-CO2, compared to business-as-usual emissions. The iron & steel, aluminium and chemical sectors, together contribute to 84% of the total electricity savings by 2040, and are thereby most important to target.

Suggested Citation

  • Yue, Hui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina, 2021. "Impacts of regional industrial electricity savings on the development of future coal capacity per electricity grid and related air pollution emissions – A case study for China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:282:y:2021:i:pb:s0306261920316354
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920316354
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116241?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Xuewei & Yuan, Zengwei & Xu, Yuan & Jiang, Songyan, 2017. "Greening cement in China: A cost-effective roadmap," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 233-244.
    2. Yue, Hui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina, 2018. "Modeling the multiple benefits of electricity savings for emissions reduction on power grid level: A case study of China’s chemical industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1603-1632.
    3. Graus, W.H.J. & Worrell, E., 2007. "Effects of SO2 and NOx control on energy-efficiency power generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3898-3908, July.
    4. Valerie J. Karplus & Shuang Zhang & Douglas Almond, 2018. "Quantifying coal power plant responses to tighter SO 2 emissions standards in China," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115(27), pages 7004-7009, July.
    5. Worrell, Ernst & Laitner, John A & Ruth, Michael & Finman, Hodayah, 2003. "Productivity benefits of industrial energy efficiency measures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1081-1098.
    6. Khanna, Nina & Fridley, David & Zhou, Nan & Karali, Nihan & Zhang, Jingjing & Feng, Wei, 2019. "Energy and CO2 implications of decarbonization strategies for China beyond efficiency: Modeling 2050 maximum renewable resources and accelerated electrification impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 12-26.
    7. An, Runying & Yu, Biying & Li, Ru & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2018. "Potential of energy savings and CO2 emission reduction in China’s iron and steel industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 862-880.
    8. Zhang, Peng & Li, Wenyuan & Li, Sherwin & Wang, Yang & Xiao, Weidong, 2013. "Reliability assessment of photovoltaic power systems: Review of current status and future perspectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 822-833.
    9. Kanada, Momoe & Dong, Liang & Fujita, Tsuyoshi & Fujii, Minoru & Inoue, Tsuyoshi & Hirano, Yujiro & Togawa, Takuya & Geng, Yong, 2013. "Regional disparity and cost-effective SO2 pollution control in China: A case study in 5 mega-cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1322-1331.
    10. Hasanbeigi, Ali & Morrow, William & Sathaye, Jayant & Masanet, Eric & Xu, Tengfang, 2013. "A bottom-up model to estimate the energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction potentials in the Chinese iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 315-325.
    11. Rentier, Gerrit & Lelieveldt, Herman & Kramer, Gert Jan, 2019. "Varieties of coal-fired power phase-out across Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 620-632.
    12. Hasanbeigi, Ali & Morrow, William & Masanet, Eric & Sathaye, Jayant & Xu, Tengfang, 2013. "Energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction opportunities in the cement industry in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 287-297.
    13. Habib, Arslan & Sou, Chan & Hafeez, Hafiz Muhammad & Arshad, Adeel, 2018. "Evaluation of the effect of high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) on system frequency regulation using stochastic risk assessment technique (an approach based on improved cumulant)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 204-212.
    14. Zhang, Shaohui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina & Krol, Maarten & de Bruine, Marco & Geng, Guangpo & Wagner, Fabian & Cofala, Janusz, 2016. "Modeling energy efficiency to improve air quality and health effects of China’s cement industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 574-593.
    15. Zhang, Qi & Xu, Jin & Wang, Yujie & Hasanbeigi, Ali & Zhang, Wei & Lu, Hongyou & Arens, Marlene, 2018. "Comprehensive assessment of energy conservation and CO2 emissions mitigation in China’s iron and steel industry based on dynamic material flows," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 251-265.
    16. Wu, Xuecheng & Zhao, Liang & Zhang, Yongxin & Zhao, Lingjie & Zheng, Chenghang & Gao, Xiang & Cen, Kefa, 2016. "Cost and potential of energy conservation and collaborative pollutant reduction in the iron and steel industry in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 171-183.
    17. Zhang, Shaohui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina & Wagner, Fabian & Cofala, Janusz, 2014. "Co-benefits of energy efficiency improvement and air pollution abatement in the Chinese iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 333-345.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wen, Shiyan & Jia, Zhijie, 2022. "The energy, environment and economy impact of coal resource tax, renewable investment, and total factor productivity growth," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Bin Xu, 2022. "How to Efficiently Reduce the Carbon Intensity of the Heavy Industry in China? Using Quantile Regression Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Chunhong Liu & Shisong Jiang & Hanfei Zhang & Ziyi Lu & Umberto Desideri, 2024. "China and Italy’s Energy Development Trajectories: Current Landscapes and Future Cooperation Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Safarzadeh, Soroush & Hafezalkotob, Ashkan & Jafari, Hamed, 2022. "Energy supply chain empowerment through tradable green and white certificates: A pathway to sustainable energy generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    5. Valeriya Azarova & Robert Lehmann & Sascha Möhrle & Andreas Peichl & Karen Pittel & Marie-Theres von Schickfus & Timo Wollmershäuser, 2022. "Economic and Business Cycle Analyses with Electricity Consumption Data," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 129, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Can & Zheng, Xinzhu & Cai, Wenjia & Gao, Xue & Berrill, Peter, 2017. "Unexpected water impacts of energy-saving measures in the iron and steel sector: Tradeoffs or synergies?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1119-1127.
    2. Yue, Hui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina, 2018. "Modeling the multiple benefits of electricity savings for emissions reduction on power grid level: A case study of China’s chemical industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1603-1632.
    3. Vögele, Stefan & Grajewski, Matthias & Govorukha, Kristina & Rübbelke, Dirk, 2020. "Challenges for the European steel industry: Analysis, possible consequences and impacts on sustainable development," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    4. Hui Li & Xianchun Tan & Jianxin Guo & Kaiwei Zhu & Chen Huang, 2019. "Study on an Implementation Scheme of Synergistic Emission Reduction of CO 2 and Air Pollutants in China’s Steel Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Wu, Ya & Su, JingRong & Li, Ke & Sun, Chuanwang, 2019. "Comparative study on power efficiency of China's provincial steel industry and its influencing factors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 1009-1020.
    6. Wang, Yihan & Chen, Chen & Tao, Yuan & Wen, Zongguo & Chen, Bin & Zhang, Hong, 2019. "A many-objective optimization of industrial environmental management using NSGA-III: A case of China’s iron and steel industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 46-56.
    7. Ünal, Berat Berkan & Onaygil, Sermin & Acuner, Ebru & Cin, Rabia, 2022. "Application of energy efficiency obligation scheme for electricity distribution companies in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Liu, Yang & Zhang, Congrui & Xu, Xiaochuan & Ge, Yongxiang & Ren, Gaofeng, 2022. "Assessment of energy conservation potential and cost in open-pit metal mines: Bottom-up approach integrated energy conservation supply curve and ultimate pit limit," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    9. Zhang, Shaohui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina & Krol, Maarten & de Bruine, Marco & Geng, Guangpo & Wagner, Fabian & Cofala, Janusz, 2016. "Modeling energy efficiency to improve air quality and health effects of China’s cement industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 574-593.
    10. Ma, Ding & Chen, Wenying & Yin, Xiang & Wang, Lining, 2016. "Quantifying the co-benefits of decarbonisation in China’s steel sector: An integrated assessment approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1225-1237.
    11. Chen, Hao & Kang, Jia-Ning & Liao, Hua & Tang, Bao-Jun & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Costs and potentials of energy conservation in China's coal-fired power industry: A bottom-up approach considering price uncertainties," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 23-32.
    12. Rodrigues da Silva, Rafael & Mathias, Flavio Roberto de Carvalho & Bajay, Sergio Valdir, 2018. "Potential energy efficiency improvements for the Brazilian iron and steel industry: Fuel and electricity conservation supply curves for integrated steel mills," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 816-824.
    13. Zhang, Qi & Zhao, Xiaoyu & Lu, Hongyou & Ni, Tuanjie & Li, Yu, 2017. "Waste energy recovery and energy efficiency improvement in China’s iron and steel industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 502-520.
    14. Wang, Xiaoyang & Yu, Biying & An, Runying & Sun, Feihu & Xu, Shuo, 2022. "An integrated analysis of China’s iron and steel industry towards carbon neutrality," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    15. Wang, Ke & Wang, Shanshan & Liu, Lei & Yue, Hui & Zhang, Ruiqin & Tang, Xiaoyan, 2016. "Environmental co-benefits of energy efficiency improvement in coal-fired power sector: A case study of Henan Province, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 810-819.
    16. Zhang, You & Yuan, Zengwei & Margni, Manuele & Bulle, Cécile & Hua, Hui & Jiang, Songyan & Liu, Xuewei, 2019. "Intensive carbon dioxide emission of coal chemical industry in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 540-550.
    17. Wu, Junnian & Pu, Guangying & Guo, Yan & Lv, Jingwen & Shang, Jiangwei, 2018. "Retrospective and prospective assessment of exergy, life cycle carbon emissions, and water footprint for coking network evolution in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 479-493.
    18. Hongtao Ren & Wenji Zhou & Marek Makowski & Shaohui Zhang & Yadong Yu & Tieju Ma, 2023. "A multi-criteria decision support model for adopting energy efficiency technologies in the iron and steel industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 325(2), pages 1111-1132, June.
    19. Kun He & Li Wang & Hongliang Zhu & Yulong Ding, 2018. "Energy-Saving Potential of China’s Steel Industry According to Its Development Plan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, April.
    20. Xi Yang & Xiaoqian Xi & Shan Guo & Wanqi Lin & Xiangzhao Feng, 2018. "Carbon Mitigation Pathway Evaluation and Environmental Benefit Analysis of Mitigation Technologies in China’s Petrochemical and Chemical Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-25, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:282:y:2021:i:pb:s0306261920316354. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.