While recent market turmoil in China has meant the government has been burning through its cash reserves at a record pace, for the electric utility plant in Yancheng; money is quite literally power as 3 billion yuan of outdated or damaged bank-notes are incinerated to generate electricity for Jiangsu province each and every year...

Out with the old, in with the new: 3 billion yuan in outdated notes burned to provide electricity

With the long-awaited introduction last week of China's crisp, new 100-yuan notes, you might catch yourself wondering, just where is all that old cash going?

Some Chinese reporters asked themselves the very same question and it turns out that they are going up in flames.

A photoseries published earlier today shows the steps that it takes to efficiently turn money into power. A truck first arrives at the electric power plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, filled with 3 billion yuan ($470 million) in outdated and damaged banknotes. The notes are divided into chunks by denomination. Each chunk is worth around 30,000 yuan.

The chunks are first shredded into confetti and then mixed together with straw. The cash and straw then go together on a conveyor belt toward their doom inside an incinerator.

An employee of the power company told reporters that each of these trucks carries 30 tons of banknotes and that they usually burn around 1,800 tons each and every year.

Doing a little math, he said that 30 tons of cash generates 30,000 kWh, which is enough to provide electricity to a household for 300 months. Not like you can take it with you.

Source: Shanghaiist.com