(Yicai Global) Nov. 1 -- As winter approaches, a nuclear energy-based heating project, equivalent to 12 coal-fired boiler houses, was put into operation in a town in China’s Liaoning province today, the first of its kind in the northeast of the country.

The nuclear heating project at Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant is supplying a clean source of heat to 20,000 residents in Hongyanhe town, near the port city of Dalian, state-owned nuclear plant operator China General Nuclear Power Corp. told Yicai Global.

The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 14,100 tons a year, coal consumption by 5,726 tons, sulfur dioxide emission by 60 tons and soot emissions by 209 tons, it said.

Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power station in northeast China and also the largest investment in power in the region. It has the most installed capacity of any nuclear power plant in China, generating 48 gigawatt hours a year, around 20 percent of Liaoning province’s energy needs.

Winters in northeast China are notoriously harsh and the geographical area to which heating is supplied is expanding at an average rate of 10 percent a year. Around 191 million tons of standard coal is needed to meet the heating needs in the region. Heating accounts for a quarter of all energy consumption in buildings.

As a result, nuclear-based heating in northern China is being actively promoted. CGN, China National Nuclear Corporation and State Power Investment have all started projects in the provinces including Heilongjiang, Jilin and Hebei.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor