Thermal power plants in south China's Guangdong Province will endeavor to cut the amount of sulfur dioxide discharged into the air by 30 percent in eight years.
To reach the objective, the Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau ordered all thermal power plants to improve desulphurization, use low-sulfur fuel, control sulfur dioxide emissions and close down small thermal power plants producing heavy pollutants.
The campaign will be carried out in three stages. In the first stage, coal or oil-fired thermal power generating units below a 50,000 kw capacity will be closed down by 2003. Newly-built thermal power plants must be equipped with desulphurization devices.
In the second stage, generating units below a 300,000 kw capacity will be installed with desulphurization devices by 2005. Finally, all 100,000-kw generating units failing to meet the provincial environmental protection standard will be eliminated.
Guangdong has been a heavy sulfur discharger. It emitted 973,100 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2001, the seventh worst polluter among China's provinces. If no measures are taken, the province is likely to discharge 1.39 million tons of sulfur dioxide by 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2002)
