INTERVIEW-China aims for first zero emission power by 2015

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) - China plans to build a major emissions-free coal burning power station by 2015, the project chief said on Wednesday, putting it at the front of a tight global race to build the first commercial scale plant.

GreenGen president Su Wenbin said he has escaped the funding and planning problems that have delayed similar ventures in the U.S. and Europe because tackling climate change is a top priority for Beijing.

"In China our system is different. When we decide to do something we can just push on with it...we know we will get government support," he told Reuters in an interview.

But Su says GreenGen, controlled by state-owned power firm Huaneng Group, is not trying to compete with similar carbon capture and storage projects in Germany and the United States.

If the 400 megawatt (MW) plant is built on time and at a reasonable cost, it could bring sweeping change to China's power industry and its international image, and potentially billions of dollars for Huaneng, which owns 52 percent of GreenGen Co Ltd.

China has plentiful reserves of coal which supplies some 80 percent of its electricity. But the plants that burn it shroud swathes of the country in smog and attract international criticism for heavy emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Beijing is keen for a solution and is pushing its big firms -- mostly members of GreenGen -- to clean up their act, which may speed the spread of any successful zero-emissions blueprint.

Datang Group, Huadian Corporation, Guodian Corporation and China Power Investment Corporation, and top coal miners Shenhua Group and China Coal Group hold 6 percent stakes. Peabody Energy Corp (BTU.N), the only foreign partner, has another 6 percent.