ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Research on Environmental Cost from
the Perspective of Coal-Fired Power Plant
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1
Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, Hebei, China
2
State Grid Xiongan New Area Electric Power Supply Company, Xiongan New Area, Hebei, China
Submission date: 2020-06-17
Final revision date: 2020-08-06
Acceptance date: 2020-08-11
Online publication date: 2021-01-26
Publication date: 2021-02-05
Corresponding author
Ting Fang
Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(2):1695-1705
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ABSTRACT
Coal-fired power generation causes various resource and environmental problems. In order to
alleviate the growing environmental problems, it is necessary for coal-fired power plants to carry out
environmental cost management. This paper takes a coal-fired power plant in China as a research object
to try to quantitatively evaluate various environmental costs of the power plant from a comprehensive
perspective. First, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used to analyze the environmental
impact of the operation of coal-fired power plants, thereby monetizing the external environmental
costs of coal-fired power plants. Secondly, the environmental cost information embedded in coal-fired
power plants in other general cost databases is classified to enable managers to obtain comprehensive
environmental cost information. The results show that the environmental cost of coal-fired power plants
is 24.81 yuan/GJ, of which the external environmental cost accounts for 55.93%, the environmental
prevention cost accounts for 41.8%, and the environmental cost during the coal transportation stage is
4.9 yuan/GJ. Through quantitative analysis of environmental costs of thermal power generation
enterprises, it can be seen that the environmental costs of coal-fired power plants during the
transportation phase cannot be ignored, and should be included in the environmental cost accounting
to avoid underestimating environmental costs. The results of this study can be used as a basis for
internalizing environmental costs and for companies to carry out environmental cost management to
encourage cleaner production and promote the sustainable development of thermal power generation
companies.