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Natural gas
has been hailed as the greenest fuel for the city, senior officials
said yesterday.
Over the next five years, the city government will intensify
its efforts to scale down Shanghai's dependence on coal, now
still a major source of industrial power. It will instead highlight
natural gas as an environment-friendly alternative, said Chen
Huifang, a senior official in charge of natural gas projects
under the Municipal Development Planning Commission.
At a seminar sponsored by the Shanghai Energy Research Society,
Chen unveiled the city's overall blueprint for energy use during
China's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
With "energy development strategies" as its theme,
the seminar was part of the Shanghai Energy-Saving Publicity
Week 2000, which was kicked off earlier this week.
"The amount of natural gas used in the city every year
will increase from the present 400 million cubic meters to 3
billion in the next five years," Chen said.
"The increased amount of natural gas used will, to a great
extent, ease the dependence some major local power and gas plants
have on coal to meet local residents' energy needs," Chen
said.
Shanghai's 15 power plants now burn nearly half of the coal
consumed by the city every year. In 1999, the plants sent 42
million tons up in smoke.
"Coal dependency and the accompanying environmental problems
will be a hurdle for Shanghai's image as an international metropolis,"
said Wen Yuhua, secretary-general of the energy research society.
The city's existing main gas pipelines will be transformed in
readiness for the alternative fuel, and local buses will be
converted to use condensed natural gas. This year's target is
300 buses, Chen said.
The expected increase in the use of natural gas will mainly
rely on China's ongoing project to channel natural gas from
the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to eastern areas. This
should amount to an annual supply of 12 billion cubic meters,
with Shanghai being the main destination, said Chen.
The city will also try to increase the amount of gas it takes
from a gas field in the East China Sea to 800 million cubic
meters a year, while continuing its efforts to tap another nearby
natural gas reserve - which is expected to add 10 billion cubic
meters of natural gas to the Yangtze River Delta in the long
run.
More than 400,000 families in the city's Pudong New Area have
been using the cleaner energy from the East China Sea gas field.
Shanghai will also seek to import liquefied natural gas and
attract foreign investment to build the city's pipeline system,
Chen said.
(China Daily 11/10/2000)
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