Original title: Technology interactions reshape the economics of China's coal power decarbonization
Yun-Long Zhang, Jia-Ning Kang, Xiaoming Kan, Lan-Cui Liu +4 · August 2026
Cleaning up coal power plants is vital to fight climate change. However, choosing the best retrofits is tricky because different cleanup technologies interact with each other. Researchers built a computer model to study how three tools work together across coal plants in China: saving energy, burning plant matter alongside coal (biomass co-firingBurning plant material like wood chips along with coal to reduce the amount of coal needed.), and trapping carbon emissions. They showed that these interactions change the real costs and pollution cuts of each tool. Saving energy works best first, letting the fleet cut approximately 1.2 Gt CO2 yr-1 at negative marginal cost, which actually saves money. To cut deeper, plants must shift toward biomass and carbon captureTechnology that captures CO2 from power plant exhaust before it goes into the atmosphere., reaching carbon neutrality at US$56 t CO2-1 and achieving net-negative emissionsWhen a process removes more CO2 from the air than it releases, like capturing CO2 from burning biomass that absorbed CO2 while growing..
You are packing a suitcase for a trip. You have three items: a jacket, boots, and a book. You can only fit two, and the jacket takes up space differently depending on whether you wear the boots. If you pack the jacket first, the boots might not fit. In this paper, the three technologies—energy conservation, biomass co-firing, and carbon capture—are like the items, and the power plant is the suitcase. The cost and feasibility of each technology changes depending on which others are already used, so the optimal combination must be chosen together, not one at a time.
China operates the world's largest coal power fleet, and retrofitting these plants is essential for near-term climate action. This research shows that the cheapest way to cut emissions depends on how different technologies interact—ignoring those interactions leads to overpaying or missing opportunities. For policymakers and investors, it means coordinated planning across energy conservation, biomass, and carbon capture can unlock negative-cost emissions reductions.
The analysis is limited to China's existing coal fleet and three retrofit technologies; it does not consider new plants, other sectors, or alternative mitigation options. The results depend on assumptions about biomass supply, CO2 storage capacity, and plant-specific costs. The model does not capture dynamic effects like technology learning or policy changes over time.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Technology interactions reshape the economics of China's coal power decarbonization — Yun-Long Zhang, Jia-Ning Kang, Xiaoming Kan et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.