title: Water-carbon trade-off in China's coal power industry.
abstract: The energy sector is increasingly facing water scarcity constraints in many regions around the globe, especially in China, where the unprecedented large-scale construction of coal-fired thermal power plants is taking place in its extremely arid northwest regions. As a response to water scarcity, air-cooled coal power plants have experienced dramatic diffusion in China since the middle 2000s. By the end of 2012, air-cooled coal-fired thermal power plants in China amounted to 112 GW, making up 14% of China's thermal power generation capacity. But the water conservation benefit of air-cooled units is achieved at the cost of lower thermal efficiency and consequently higher carbon emission intensity. We estimate that in 2012 the deployment of air-cooled units contributed an additional 24.3-31.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions (equivalent to 0.7-1.0% of the total CO2 emissions by China's electric power sector), while saving 832-942 million m(3) of consumptive water use (about 60% of the total annual water use of Beijing) when compared to a scenario with water-cooled plants. Additional CO2 emissions from air-cooled plants largely offset the CO2 emissions reduction benefits from Chinese policies of retiring small and outdated coal plants. This water-carbon trade-off is poised to become even more significant by 2020, as air-cooled units are expected to grow by a factor of 2-260 GW, accounting for 22% of China's total coal-fired power generation capacity.
authors.affiliation: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University , Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Laura Diaz
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Anadon
authors.forename: Hongpin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Zhongnan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D002681:China; D003031:Coal; D004058:Diffusion; D005618:Fresh Water; D005843:Geography; D007221:Industry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011210:Power Plants; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D003031:Coal; D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002244:Carbon