20-05-08 In sight of the pagoda in Tianning Temple, a valuable memento of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), located at Guang'anmen Street in Beijing, used to stand a tall factory chimney that emitted heavy industrial smoke and soot. It was a sharply contrasting sight.
The factory near the historical site was the predecessor of Huadian Beijing Co-generation Co., a key thermal power plant for the nation's capital that provides heat for the buildings along the Chang'an avenue, including the Great Hall of People, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse and a cluster of State administrative facilities.

The old thermal power, with 200,000 kW capacity, supplied heat for 500,000 people and 12 mm sq meters of construction areas in Beijing for more than 30 years after it opened in 1972.
However, to protect the area's historical and cultural heritage and to halt the power plant's pollution, the old power plant was abandoned earlier this year.

China Huadian Corporation (CHD), the factory's parent company, replaced it with a gas-fired co-generation project, Huadian Beijing Co-generation, in the city's western outskirt.
The new plant has a heat supply capacity of 540 mm kcal/h and power generation capacity of 1.9 bn kWh annually, and is one of the key projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games' power and heat supply systems.