An ultra-high voltage transmission line from north Shanxi to Nanjing in Jiangsu province started construction on June 29 in the city of Suzhou, Shanxi province.

The line will raise Shanxi’s transmission capacity by 8 million kilowatts and help Jiangsu to cut coal consumption by over 20 million tons.

On the same day, a power plant in Suzhou’s Shentou town, which was once the largest thermal plant in North China, demolished five 90-meter cooling towers and a 210-meter chimney. The plant’s new location was equipped with more environmentally-friendly generator sets.

In 2014, Shanxi was ahead of other provinces in coal output; however, electricity transmitted outside the province accounted for less than 5 percent of the total outward coal. There was a sharp imbalance between coal and electricity, which made the province vulnerable to coal market fluctuations.

Shanxi is striving to be a comprehensive energy base, a clean energy base and an R&D center for low-carbon technologies in recent years.

Both projects, one for construction and one for demolishing, demonstrate the province’s development from black coal to green coal electricity. In 2015, the province’s financial support for environmentally friendly thermal power plants’ has increased by two or three times than last year.

As power transmission projects started to grow, Shanxi’s energy industry has more opportunity. By 2017, Shanxi’s thermal power will upgrade from “black” to “green” as more power transmission lines are completed.

Five cooling towers of a thermal power plant in Shentou, Shanxi province are demolished on June 29. [Photo/china.com.cn]