Even as China races ahead with renewable energy deployment, it is adding coal-burning power capacity at the fastest pace in a decade. The China Electricity Council (CEC) projects that more than 80 gigawatts of new coal-fired power will be commissioned in 2025, with some analysts saying the figure could hit 100 GW. That compares with just 44 GW of capacity installed worldwide in 2024, according to a report by a group of nongovernmental organizations. Coal power remains “structurally protected” in China, benefiting from institutional inertia and policy supports. But as renewables expand, coal is starting to move into a more flexible role, and future policy will be closely watched.
The surge stems largely from the 2022–23 power shortages when extreme weather left provinces scrambling for supply. In the wake of the shortages, approvals for new coal capacity ballooned: Beijing signed off on 106 GW of new coal-fired capacity in 2022 and 168 GW in 2023, data from US think tank Global Energy Monitor shows. With three- to four-year construction cycles, these projects are now coming on line and will continue entering service through 2026–28, said Qi Qin, a China analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), a Helsinki-based energy think tank.
