China coal power surges even as renewables hit record high

5 comments

1. **installed capacity** does but power generation from coal is already in decline.

2. July had an insane 1 petawatt consumption record, and coal still wasn’t at historical maximums. Still, it has gone up significantly from the first 6 months of the year, and if electricity consumption continue to go up this much, we could see a new record for annual coal consumption in 2025.

   Add to this that coal consumption overall (for coal-derived chemicals) is still going up slightly because of China’s drive toward ending oil dependence.

3. They are adding renewable as fast as humanly possible, but their energy consumption is also rising. So the coal will still be there, coal won’t go away. But they are able to meet their rising demands from renewables. Also new coals plants utilization have dropped as well. Coal is being used as a buffer now.

4. Their publicly stated goal (in 2020) is to achieve “peak carbon” emission by 2030 and become “carbon neutral” by 2060.
   And we’re only in 2025. Still 5 more years to go.

5. By “surging” they mean it spent one month roughly where it was in the middle of 2022, but has been 3-5% down from peak every other month.

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