China's coal-rich region speeds up energy structure adjustment

Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China's major coal producer, has sped up the adjustment of its energy structure, a local official has said.

Li Li, director of the regional energy bureau, said on Sept 3 at a news briefing that the region has upgraded the energy structure by using coal for electricity, oil and gas production.

Li said that the energy industry in Inner Mongolia is important to ensure the energy demand for the country's economic and social development and ecological protection.

Inner Mongolia supplied 180.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2018, ranking first in the country many years in a row. Its renewable energy generation output reached 81.3 billion kilowatt-hours last year, which equals 25 million tons of standard coal, reducing carbon emissions by 66 million tons compared with the same amount of thermal power, equivalent to adding 180,000 hectares of afforestation.

By the end of 2018, there were 532 coal mines in the region, with an annual production capacity of 1.33 billion tons. In 2018, the region's coal output reached 975 million tons, ranking first in the country.

Li said the installed capacity of coal-fired power plants in the region reached 123 million kilowatts, ranking third in the country in 2018; The region's coal-to-oil output reached 1.03 million tons, ranking second in the country, and the coal-to-gas output reached 1.57 billion cubic meters, ranking first in the country.

He said the extended industrial chain of modern coal chemical processing includes coal-to-oil, coal-to-gas, coal-to-olefin and coal-to-methanol.

Inner Mongolia shut down 48 local coal mines with backward production capacity between 2016 and 2018.