BEIJING, Dec. 19  -- China plans to establish an ultra-large heating system serving Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province that uses the waste heat produced by coal-fired power plants and steel plants in the suburban areas of Beijing to meet the great need for heating in the region.

"It will be environment-friendly and economical to make use of waste heat from power plants and steel plants," said an official of Beijing District Heating Group. At present, BDHG's heating system draws primarily from waste heat produced by four major power plants. However, as demands for heating supply increase, limited waste heat will hardly be able to meet requirements. Due to a lack of fossil fuels, Beijing has to resort to more waste heat transported from suburban areas as well as renewable and clean energy, making the construction of an ultra-large heating system a necessity.

"As we know, there are a large number of power plants and steel plants around Beijing that provide abundant waste heat sufficient to heat 3 billion square meters," said Fulin, a professor at Tsinghua University, while attending the Sino-Danish Heating Technology Conference. It is estimated that waste heat can be transported as far as 300 kilometers at low costs, making the project feasible.

Now that BDHG has signed a cooperative and strategic contract with Danish District Heating Committee, Beijing will make efforts to introduce advanced heating technology and more renewable resources such as solar, geothermal and garbage-incineration energy into use. Similar heating systems are expected to be expanded to the whole nation in the future.