NANJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- An advanced heat-storage station, which can extract heat from industrial waste and store high-temperature steam, has been put into operation in the city of Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.
Built by China's State Grid, the station is equipped with cutting-edge steam-storage technology that can extract the leftover heat from industrial wastewater and waste gas to produce and store steam at nearly 160 degrees Celsius. The steam can be further used by textile and apparel enterprises.
Yuan Junqiu, with the State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company, said that the station can help promote the sustainable utilization of energy and the whole process uses solar power to improve the decarbonization level of traditional industries.
"Our company requires a large amount of steam," said Zheng Manxiang, chairperson of a local textile company. "We used to rely on steam supplied by a coal-fired power plant. Since the commissioning of this new heat-storage station, our cost per tonne of steam is expected to fall by at least 80 yuan (about 11.3 U.S. dollars), resulting in an annual energy cost saving of over one million yuan."
As a manufacturing hub, Changzhou has been actively promoting the application of energy-efficient technologies, reducing the overall energy consumption intensity and improving the efficiency of energy utilization.
In 2022, Changzhou achieved an 11.1 percent reduction in per unit GDP energy consumption, ranking first in the province.
To further tap into the energy-saving potential in the industrial sector and significantly enhance energy efficiency, Jiangsu previously introduced a "three-year action plan for energy-saving and technological transformation in the industrial sector."
By 2025, the energy consumption per unit of added value of the province's large industrial enterprises with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan is expected to decrease by more than 17 percent from the 2020 level, according to the plan.
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