On July 3rd, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development issued a notice on the selection of green and low-carbon benchmark factories for sewage treatment. The document proposes to adopt the method of "selecting one batch, renovating and expanding one batch", and by the end of 2025, build 100 green and low-carbon benchmark factories for efficient recycling of energy resources in sewage treatment.

Environmental Water Circle "noticed that both the selected green and low-carbon benchmark plants and the newly renovated and expanded sewage treatment benchmark plants mentioned the" photovoltaic+sewage plant "model.

For the application of "selection benchmark plants" for sewage treatment plants that have been built and operated well, requirements are proposed:

Based on local conditions, we encourage the implementation of integrated and specialized operation and maintenance of "factory grid river (lake)" within the service scope, establish a performance-based payment mechanism linking sewage treatment service fees to the concentration of pollutants in the sewage treatment plant, pollutant reduction, effluent quality, and the effectiveness of harmless and stable sludge treatment, and explore and practice various aspects such as including green power generation such as photovoltaic power generation and biogas power generation in the scope of guaranteed acquisition by power grid enterprises, and summarize and refine characteristic practices.

For the benchmark factories selected for the selection of newly renovated and expanded sewage treatment plants, requirements are proposed:

Strengthen the energy recovery of sewage source heat pumps and photovoltaic power generation. Promote sewage source heat pump technology to provide heating and cooling for the factory and surrounding areas, steadily promote the "photovoltaic+" mode in areas with abundant light resources, timely layout smart microgrids and new energy storage facilities, and promote active participation in green certificate trading.

In fact, in the past few years, the country has successively issued some policies and documents on "photovoltaic+sewage treatment plant", which were not systematic at that time. Environmental protection professionals in the industry generally held a wait-and-see attitude and had mixed opinions on the application of this model.

For example, in April 2022, the government encouraged sewage treatment companies to comprehensively utilize site space and adopt the "self use, surplus grid connection" model to construct photovoltaic power generation projects; September 2022: The country encourages the promotion of the "photovoltaic+" model and arranges solar power generation facilities on the roofs of factory areas

Now it seems that based on the dual carbon target, the national attitude towards the construction and application of the "photovoltaic+sewage plant" model is self-evident.

As expected, the construction and application of the "photovoltaic+sewage plant" model may need to be accelerated this time!