Green giants

FOR the first three quarters of the year, China Huaneng Group has achieved the goal of reducing coal consumption to 339.19 g/kwh, down 7.48 g/kwh from the same period last year. This owes much to technological improvements in energy conservation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, said Wu Ruosi, Deputy General Manager of the state-owned Huaneng Group, which is one of the major electricity suppliers in China. The enterprise developed a five-year plan on energy saving in early 2006, detailing efficient consumption requirements for coal power plants with a capacity beyond 100,000 kw. Wu said the company has devoted a considerable sum of capital to developing and employing new techniques to upgrade old electric generating sets, increasing efficiency and cutting consumption. Yuhuan power plant, which is a subsidiary under the Huaneng Group, lowered electricity-generation coal consumption to 283.2 g/kwh in June 2006, about 366 g/kwh below the national average level and equals to the international average level. If all the coal-burning power plants in the country can reach the same level as that of the Yuhuan power plant, said Wu, then the nation would burn some 200 million tons of standard coal less and reduce GHG emissions by 540 million tons. Wu said that 40 percent of the group’s coal power plants will be energy-efficient, just like the Yuhuan plant, by the end of 2008. The electricity company also shuts down small power plants that fail to meet energy saving standards. By the end of September 2007, 55 electric generating sets had been closed. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) should bear the main responsibility for China’s energy conservation and GHG emission reduction, said Huang Shuhe, Vice Minister of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council. State-owned enterprises make up a large part of the country’s industrial sector, and the electricity industry is the key to accomplishing the mission of clean and efficient energy.
In China’s electricity network, 75 percent is fire-generated, most of which is generated from coal burning. Fire-generated electricity production swallows huge amounts of energy and produces considerable emissions. In 2006, 1.2 billion tons of the country’s raw coal was used to generate electricity, making up half of the total coal consumption volume that year. It is estimated that if all China’s small electric generating sets were replaced by large ones, 220 million tons of CO2 emissions would be cut and some 90 million tons of standard coal would be saved, an equivalent to 10 percent of the gross coal consumption in 2005. At the beginning of 2006, the SASAC ordered that between 2006 and 2010, a capacity of 50 million kw of small electric generating sets that consume greater energy be shut down. Up to now, generating sets with a capacity of 16 million kw have been closed, including 1.86 million from the Huaneng Group. Other key industries that are required to reduce emissions include the steel, oil and chemical sectors. The Aluminium Corporation of China, the country’s largest non-ferrous metal corporation, plans to carry out 58 key R&D projects and 117 technology renovations between 2007 and 2010 to save as many as 2.47 million tons of standard coal each year, said the company’s General Manager Xiao Yaqing, adding that the company’s new aluminium-producing technology could reduce coal consumption by 500,000 tons a year. Xiao also noted that the company has a set of systems to promote clean production and energy saving. Those who make great achievements in technology innovation will receive incentives and rewards from the company. The team that has developed the new aluminium production technology has already received 1 million yuan ($135,135) as a reward, and each teammate received another individual reward of 300,000 yuan ($40,540).

Freedom for Kosovo

AS THE troika of European Union, American and Russian envoys made a last-ditch effort yesterday to facilitate a breakthrough on the Kosovo issue, hopes were dim. But, try they must to find a solution; try, rather, to convince the Serbs of the urgency of the situation, if only to avert a new war. Time is virtually running out, and the uncertainty over the southern Balkan province must end sooner than later. As a December 10 deadline for an end to talks and a final decision on Kosovo’s status nears, Serbia is making more noises. It is worried; and understandably so, as there is no practical way other than granting independence to the two-million strong overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians. It would mean secession of 15 per cent of the Serbian territory, a hard option, but a historical necessity, if a new war is to be averted in the Balkans. Autonomy, as Serbia would suggest as an alternative, means little to ethnic Albanians, on whom the past is hanging heavy. Without doubt, the West is serious about helping Kosovo gain independence, ending eight years of uncertainty for the province currently under the UN and Nato protection. While Bill Clinton as the then US president acted decisively, forcing the world body’s intervention and a virtual war involving aerial bombardment to stop the 1998-99 ethnic cleansing by Serbs at the behest of late Slobodan Milosevic, the people had heaved a sigh of relief, but the issue has dragged and independence delayed.
On the positive side, however, Milosevic and the atrocities his forces have unleashed on the people in Kosovo are history now; and, in the past eight years, Serbia has no say over the province. But, the matter needs to be taken to its logical conclusion. Freedom is what the people want. Part of the hitch to independence is that Russia is to Serbia’s help, but how long should this uncertainty continue? Independence for Kosovo must be seen by the Serbs as a fait accompli. There is no point harping on theme of chaos in the aftermath of a separation. Arguments are that if Kosovo is recognized as an independent state, “it would not be the final stage of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the first stage of disintegration and secession in the Balkans” — the obvious hints being on possible further division of Kosovo, and on Bosnia. At best, they were aimed at putting a spoke into the independence plans. In fact, a new urgency has been added to the issue with Hashim Thaci, former guerrilla fighter, winning the elections in Kosovo and is set to take over as its prime minister. His promise to his people is that his first step in power would be to declare independence for the province. He might. The count down has begun; and justice must go the way of the ethnic Albanians.

—Khaleej Times