Contribution project

Agricultural residues as a source of energy

China, Jilin

ClimatePartner ID: 1065

Project details

BiomassGet to know the project

The project in the Chinese province of Jilin generates energy from renewable biomass. It saves greenhouse gas emissions and helps to meet the region's rapidly growing energy demand, while improving living conditions for local people. The city of Liaoyuan is an important agricultural center in the region. The thermal power plant built as part of the project uses renewable, regionally produced biomass - mainly the stems of corn plants - to generate energy. The 190 GWh per year reduce the share of fossil fuels in the power mix of northern China. Without the project, the crop residues would rot in the open air - a process that produces large amounts of methane, CH4.

The factory burns biomass in a targeted manner as a valuable source of energy and thus prevents both CO₂ and CH₄ emissions. In addition, the project creates new jobs in the power plant and for the procurement of the biomass. Three collection stations for agricultural waste products were set up within a radius of 40 km. For many farmers in the region, the sale of the biomass is an important additional source of income.

410,785 t CO₂Estimated annual emissions reductions

Project Standard

The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

How biomass projects help contribute to climate action

Biomass refers to organic residues such as tree branches, leaves, sawdust, wood chips or coconut shells. Those are of a biogenic, non-fossil nature that can be used to generate renewable energy. One way to generate renewable energy, among others, is to fire kilns using biomass. This process prevents harmful smoke and large quantities of CO₂ to be released.

As an additional greenhouse gas reduction measure, biomass climate projects mostly prevent biomass from rotting in the open air, so that no methane (CH₄) is released. Biomass projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.

The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project facts

Climate projects generally fall into one of three groups: carbon reduction, carbon removal, or carbon avoidance. Carbon reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a specific activity (e.g., improved cookstoves). Carbon removal projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it in carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation). Carbon avoidance projects avoid greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere (e.g., protecting forests from deforestation with REDD+ projects).

All climate projects are based on international standards. They set processes and requirements which carbon projects must fulfill to be recognised as a proven method of reducing carbon emissions.

Climate projects demonstrably reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved with various technologies, ranging from nature-based solutions to social impact projects and renewable energies.

Most standards on the voluntary carbon market list their projects in public registries. The registries are used to store project data and track issuances and retirements of verified emission reductions. The registry ID can be used to identify projects in the standard registry.

Check out this project

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Verification happens regularly after each monitoring period. A validation and verification body checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct and verifies them. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the process.

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Validation happens early in the project life cycle and ensures that the project design is in line with current processes and requirements. This phase often also involves field visits with on-site interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved as a validation and verification body (VVB) by the standards body.

This figure shows the estimated annual emission reductions calculated before the project started. The actual number of emissions saved in each monitoring period may differ. The background to this process is that in order to be registered as a climate project, the project operator must submit the calculation of the estimated emissions savings using the ex-ante methodology in a Project Design Document (PDD), which is similar to a business plan. This calculation is validated by an independent auditor. The values determined in the PDD are recalculated during regular monitoring periods based on actual project performance, documented in a monitoring report, and verified again by independent auditors at the end of the monitoring period to ensure a robust process. Independent verification thus provides ex-post verification of actual emission reductions. Verified emission reductions are not distributed until the savings have actually been made.

* For certified projects only: the project-related information on this page is based on the documents in the register.

Explore our projects