Rebuild air strategy from ground up
You report that the maximum fine for fabricating emissions data in China is 50,000 yuan (HK$61,000) and fines for violating limits on sulfur dioxide emissions ranged up to 100,000 yuan ('Power plants fined for fake pollution data', November 25).
To put those sums in perspective, a typical 600 megawatt (MW) power station uses 250 tonnes of coal per hour at an average of approximately 800 yuan per tonne or 200,000 yuan, and sells power to the grid at approximately 0.40 yuan per kilowatt-hour, or 240,000 yuan. And that's just for a 600 MW power plant. These numbers illustrate the extent to which these fines are a mere slap on the wrist for mainland power plant operators.
However, there are two deeper problems. First, state-owned power plants in China almost never do what every other power plant outside of China is made to do, namely mount their measurement devices 100 metres or more high on the plant's stack, where accurate measurement is possible.
Instead, they prefer to measure in the ducting close to the ground where good readings cannot be obtained and the irrelevant data recorded can be infinitely manipulated to produce whatever numbers are desired.
Second, even with the provision of good data, China would still find it very hard to reduce power plant emissions for some years. China simply has no experience designing and operating emissions reduction systems that actually work.
Similarly, Chinese manufacturers of pollution reduction equipment have no experience producing equipment that can meet any real standard for efficacy and have any other advantage besides a low price, as the buyers of the devices in Indonesia, India and other countries are now finding out.
