The impacts of coal plants relocation on the concentration of fine particulate matter in China

Abstract

The air pollution situation in the northern part of China has become a threat to the current status of China’s energy consumption. This has created pressure to relocate coal plants to the western section of the country. We apply a spatial panel data method to empirically examine the relationship between fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentration, precipitation and wind speed by using the sample data of 50 cities over 11 months. Based on the empirical parameters, the paper simulates the potential impacts of the proposed coal plants and the coal plants currently under construction for the PM_2.5 concentrations across all cities once these coal plants are operational. The results show that the new capacities will increase PM_2.5 concentrations in northwest and northeast China, but at acceptable levels and lower than levels in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong.