China is increasing the use of coal to generate electricity – Kommersant

In the first three months of 2023, the Chinese authorities approved the construction of new coal-fired power plants with an output capacity of 20.45 GW, follows from report Greenpeace. This is more than double the figure for the first quarter of 2022 (8.63 GW) and more than for all of 2021.

As the organization notes, the actions of the Chinese authorities cast doubt on their previously announced plans. In 2016, when the next five-year plan of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was published, the authorities promised to focus on reducing the use of coal for electricity generation and developing renewable energy sources. And in 2020, Xi Jinping promised that the country would become carbon neutral by 2060.

However, the authors of the report argue that after China experienced a series of severe power outages in 2021, the authorities moved away from the declared strategy and returned to the large-scale use of coal. Greenpeace experts are confident that increasing investment in coal projects will not help China strategically: “Summer is just around the corner, and across China, a lot of things need to be fixed in the energy infrastructure. But investing in coal in the hope that it will help is not one of them,” says Greenpeace East Asia representative Xie Wenwen.

The fact is that more than 75% of China’s coal, wind, solar and hydropower resources are located in the west of the country, while more than 70% of the nation’s electricity consumption is in central and eastern China. The five provinces on the east coast account for nearly two-fifths of China’s total consumption. “China’s power grid is not short of generating capacity. The network lacks flexibility and responsiveness,” summed up Mr. Xie.

Kirill Sarkhanyants