A coal-fired power station which is said to be the world’s cleanest and most efficient of its kind is located in Shanghai.

The Waigaoqiao no.3 Power Generation plant processes around 30% of cheap brown coal from Indonesia, according to Professor Feng Weizhong who worked on the site to make it more efficient.

He said the plant can achieve efficiency levels of 45% Lower Heating Value by using low quality coal.

He added: “It’s not necessary to use higher quality [coal]. We have narrowed the gap in efficiency between high ranking and low ranking coal.”

Furthermore, he insists emissions produced by lower quality coal are still well below the benchmark set by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for Ultra Super Critical coal plants.

Mr Weizhong also added technology improvements to the plant to make it clean and efficient which include upgraded boilers, energy saving measures and pollution control systems.