In the early morning, light mist drifts over the Tongling stretch of the Yangtze River. Several Yangtze finless porpoises glide across the water, their streamlined backs breaking the surface as their breaths mingle with ripples and fade into the dawn. The frequent appearance of these “smiling angels”, together with the green transformation of CHN Energy Anhui Branch Tongling Power Plant nearby, outlines a renewed ecological landscape along the riverbank.
Located on the banks of the Yangtze, Tongling Power Plant has for many years steadily advanced environmental upgrades and energy transformation. From the early days of construction, the company invested more than 500 million yuan (around 72 million USD) in environmental protection facilities, installing high-efficiency dust removal and desulfurization systems. The denitrification system supporting Unit 2 was the first of its kind among similar projects in east China’s Anhui Province. In subsequent phases, the plant dismantled desulfurization bypasses, completed ultra-low emission retrofits, achieved full enclosure of coal yards, and realized zero wastewater discharge, building a comprehensive ecological safeguard.
The concept of a circular economy runs through the plant’s entire operation. Fly ash, slag, gypsum and other general solid wastes are reused at a rate of 100 percent, while hazardous waste management adopts a fully digital, traceable system. A real-time carbon emissions monitoring system operates around the clock. In 2025, all 717,700 tons of general solid waste were recycled, and 180.94 tons of hazardous waste were properly disposed of, meeting the goal of building a zero-waste factory.
In the field of clean energy, Tongling Power Plant has conducted comprehensive assessments of regional resource potential since 2020, surveying rooftops, fish ponds, abandoned mines and other usable spaces. The Donghu fishery–photovoltaic complementary project has become a benchmark for transformation. In July 2024, the first 90 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity were connected to the grid, and in May 2025, the 92.8-megawatt second phase entered operation ahead of schedule, creating Anhui Province’s largest centralized fishery–photovoltaic power station. The photovoltaic panels provide shade and cooling, reducing fish disease and forming a three-dimensional model of power generation above water and fish farming below. Aquaculture incomes have doubled compared with the past, while the project generates more than 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually and saves over 60,000 tons of standard coal.
At the site of closed mines in Tianmen Town, a planned integrated wind-solar-storage project is progressing steadily. Wind turbines, photovoltaic modules and energy storage systems will work in coordination to revitalize idle land resources. By the end of 2025, the plant’s installed capacity of new energy exceeded 220 megawatts, saving more than 90,000 tons of standard coal annually and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 250,000 tons, equivalent to planting 13 million trees along both banks of the Yangtze River.
At the same time, the company is exploring a comprehensive thermal-power-plus energy service model. In September 2025, it achieved its first breakthrough in mobile heat supply, with annual heat sales increasing by 64.3 percent year on year. Leveraging its own port and railway facilities, the plant is co-developing a logistics center, jointly researching mine-shaft energy storage and flywheel energy storage technologies, and advancing layouts in CCUS and green hydrogen production from renewable power. Within the plant area, idle land has been transformed into a small orchard with scenery in all seasons, where crape myrtle and cherry blossoms complement the production facilities.
As the sun sets, finless porpoises leap from the water once more, photovoltaic arrays glow softly in the afterglow, and fresh greenery stretches endlessly along the shoreline. Here, the ecological recovery of the Yangtze River and the green transformation of the power plant meet in a vivid balance of harmonious coexistence.
