Shanxi province, a major coal production region in North China, plans to cut over 15 million metric tons of coal overcapacity in 2020, according to a government work report released by Lin Wu, acting governor of Shanxi, on Jan 13. 

"Developing new industries and cultivating new momentum is the hope and way out for high-quality transformation and development in Shanxi, which was once over-dependent on the coal sector," Lin said. 

He said that in the current year, Shanxi would promote coal mining in a more environmentally friendly and intelligent way.

It plans to improve the productivity of coal miners, close all local coal mines with an annual output of less than 600,000 tons -- to cut more than 15 million tons of overcapacity -- and regulate the coal washing industry to reduce its annual capacity to around 1.8 billion tons.

Meantime, the coal-rich province aims to incubate more new industries, with each expected to contributing annual output value of 100 billion yuan ($14.52 billion). 

To optimize the structure of its coal industry and realize greener economic growth, Shanxi province has slashed 115.86 million tons of coal production capacity over the past four years by closing 106 collieries.

Especially in 2019, the province cut 11.92 million tons of coke production capacity and delivered 99.13 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity generated from local solar power stations, with the scale of its solar power parks ranking first in China.

In addition, it accelerated energy technology innovation in the past year, making breakthroughs in intelligent coal mining, clean and efficient coal utilization and in smart energy technology fields.