Cleaner Greener China

Scientific American has recently highlighted a Tianjin based project called GreenGen in their article China Targets Cleaner-Coal Power Plants

A high profile project, GreenGen’s shareholders:

come from five largest power companies, two biggest coal companies and one important investment company: the China Huaneng Group (CHNG), the China Datang Corporation, the China Huadian Corporation, the China Guodian Corporation, the China Power Investment Corporation, the Shen Hua Group, the China National Coal Group and the State Development and Investment Corporation.

and it has a simple goal

GreenGen’s objective is to design, build and operate the first IGCC power plant in China in 2009 and coal-based, near-zero-emission GreenGen power plant in China with independent intellectual property rights.

to put the project into context, Kelly Gallagher of Harvard was quoted as saying:

GreenGen must function as a for-profit power plant, so even though Chinese officials agree on the long-term benefit of removing CO₂ from the air, the future of climate change may depend on the economic value assigned to that benefit.

To some extent, I would agree.  However, I still believe that for many of these programs the economic value is not a primary concern.  Cleaning the air and water locally is… as is creating the technologies of the future that will address environmental issues internationally.

Greener Companies carbon sequester, cleantech, Energy