CCS Clusters Provide a Decarbonization Pathway for China’s Small-Scale Coal-Fired Power Plants

Coal-fired power plants account for about half of China’s energy-related CO2 emissions, making their decarbonization critical for climate change mitigation. However, small-scale facilities have received limited attention in carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment due to their limited economies of scale. CCS clusters provide a cost-effective pathway to mitigate emissions from these plants. Four CCS deployment scenarios are developed to examine the mitigation potential and economic implications of including small-scale facilities. Point-to-point and clustered source-sink matching are applied to 3983 facilities and national storage site data for oilfields and saline aquifers. Results show that small-scale facilities account for 3.2 Gt CO2 of cumulative abatement over 2030–2060, reducing the contribution required from large facilities. CCS clusters further reduce average transport distances for small-scale facilities by 71.5% and limit system cost increases to 0.4%, compared with a 3.8% increase under point-to-point layouts. Compared with the large facility point-to-point scenario (36.1 $/t), the average levelized cost of CCS is 12.7% lower when small-scale facilities are included and 15.5% lower under clustered deployment. These findings can support the sustainable transformation of China’s coal power sector by informing CCS deployment and shared infrastructure planning.