China's economic growth may be cooling down but the energy sector has plenty of money to burn.

A power plant in Luoyang City, in the country's central Henan province, is using old banknotes rather than coal as fuel for its furnaces and toprovide power for the region. According to reports from the official Xinhua news agency, a tonne of blazing banknotes can help contribute 660kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy and generates far less pollution than the fossil fuel traditionally used -a bonus in a country notorious for smog inits cities.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, has approved incinerating the banknotes according to Xinhua, and this is the firsttime they have been used as fuel. "With Henan's current unused paper money counted, the company can help generate 1.32 million kWh of electricityannually, which is equal to burning 4,000 tonnes of coal," a PBOC source told Xinhua.

China is not alone in having money to burn. The Bank of England destroys billions of pounds worth of banknotes every year as they become worn out.Each year the Bank receives about 700m tonnes of notes that have been withdrawn from circulation.

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A Chinesecity is burning money for power instead of coal(www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11287488/A-Chinese-city-is-burning-money-for-power-instead-of-coal.html)