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Crop stalks to generate power
By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-11-15 22:36
Stalks of cotton, corn, wheat and soybean, which farmers have burnt to cook
for hundreds ofyears, will be used to generate electricity in East China's
Shandong Province.
Stalks, abundant in Shangdong, one of China's major
farming provinces, may also help protect the environment and provide some
poverty relief, experts said.
Expected to start producing in June, 2006,
Longji Ecological Power Plant Co Ltd in ShanxianCounty will use 200,000 tons of
crop stalks per year, one-third of the local production, to put out 156 million
kilowatt-hours of electricity, sources from the Provincial Developmentand Reform
Commission said.
Statistics show two tons of stalks can produce the same
amount of electricity as one ton of coal. Plant ash will be returned to farmers
free to be used as fertilizer.
Crop stalks can be thoroughly used to
produce electricity. At the same time, burning them creates little
pollution.
When they are burnt in the fields after harvest, however,
these same stalks can create an environmental headache.
However,
officials say electricity prices for stalk-generated power will be higher than
coal-based power.
A local official said setting up a stalk-generated
power plant requires 30 per cent more investment. At the same time, this type of
power plant is relatively small, making it difficult to create economies of
scale.
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