China sharply increased coal production in 2022. The country approved four times as many new coal plants last year as in 2021.
China gave permission in 2022 to increase coal-derived energy capacity by 106 gigawatts. That is the largest capacity increase since 2015, according to a study published Monday by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
The construction of new Chinese coal-fired power plants, which together generate about 50 gigawatts of electricity, has already started. “China remains the striking exception in light of the global decline in coal power plant construction,” says a GEM analyst. “The speed at which projects moved from the permitting phase to the construction phase in 2022 has been extraordinary.”
The wave of approvals for the construction of coal-fired power plants follows severe power shortages in the summer of 2022, when extreme drought dried up necessary hydropower reservoirs and heat increased demand for air conditioning. As a result, many of the recently approved projects are intended as basic “support” capacity to minimize the risk of power outages, the report says.
But many new coal-fired power stations are being built in regions that have excess capacity, the report’s authors emphasize. They believe China can better address its power supply problems by improving the reliability and efficiency of its existing power grid.
