Biomass, Asia

Project Summary

This Chinese biomass in rural Anhui Province replaces coal power energy generation with clean electricity from biomass. The biomass is collected from numerous sites around the project site and consists of a range of biomass; timber offcuts, end of life cotton plants and rice husk. Rice husk is the soft shell that rice is grown within that is discarded when rice is processed. Rice husk that was previously viewed as waste now have a tangible fiscal value for local farmers.

And the project generates jobs as well as power, with 172 jobs created to run the biomass power generation plant and the collection of the rice husk and biomass in Anhui provides much needed employment in a predominantly rural area of China.

Project Description

In addition to displacing some of the need for coal power plants with energy from biomass, the project also reduces methane emissions by creating energy from the rice husks that were previously left to decay and improves local and indoor air quality by replacing small coal-fired boilers with biogas boilers.

A typical farmer earns RMB 800-1100 from one mu (667m2) of rice planted. Now, an additional RMB 60 million is paid to local farmers per year, with approximately 50,000 farmers benefiting from this additional income.

Contribution to Sustainable Development

In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the biomass project contributes to sustainable development by:

• Using rice husks as fuel which were previously discarded as waste and created methane emissions as fuel.
• Improving air quality by using biogas boilers.
• Creating 214 jobs during construction and approximately 172 jobs for the operation phase of the project.
• Increasing the incomes of project employees and local farmers.
• Providing local farmers with ash residues they can use as fertiliser.