Recovering forest residue to heat a district of Yichun

Although China has significant biomass resources (crop and forest residues, animal manure), power generation from this renewable energy source was underdeveloped in the country.

The government has set out to address this by implementing policies to support this sector and promote the construction of biomass power plants, especially cogeneration plants which produce both power and heat, in order to achieve optimum yields.

Yichun District is located in Heilongjiang Province, a cold climate region in the far northeast of China. Over 80% of its territory is covered with forests whose residues are not currently recovered.

AFD is supporting the construction of a cogeneration power plant fueled by forest and crop residue in the village of Shuangfeng in order to replace coal boiler systems. The new plant will have a power generation capacity of 180 GWh and annual heat capacity of 410,300 gigajoules.

The project also provides for the installation of a 29.5 km-long power line, a biomass collection system within a 60 km radius around the power plant, and the renovation of the primary heat distribution network in Shuangfeng (including the management and control equipment), which will provide the heating supply for an area covering 650,000 m².

• Reduction in coal consumption for heating estimated at some 57,500 tons per year and the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at some 300,000 tons of CO2 per year;

• Forest and crop residues, currently left on-site or burnt in the open air, will be recovered, thus reducing air pollution;

• Finally, the implementation of the forest residue collection activity will be a source of new local employment and will provide workers with significant additional income, estimated at about 10% of their annual salary.