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You can look at current levels, or look at trends. China has stopped increasing coal. They're building a small number of new coal plants, but this is outstrippe
by energy123 2mo ago
You can look at current levels, or look at trends. China has stopped increasing coal. They're building a small number of new coal plants, but this is outstripped by the coal plants being underutilized or decommissioned
China is really only building new renewables, almost 100x as much net renewable capacity per year compared to nuclear.
- cobbaut 2mo agoPlus they are building coal plants as backups for when other sources fail.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- stephen_g 2mo agoThat doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, coal plants take at least 10 hours (but can take up to 48 hours) to start, warm up and synchronise from cold. That’s why hydro, gas, and increasingly large batteries are generally used for peaking.
- ViewTrick1002 2mo agoThat is legacy coal plants. The ones China are building are specifically built to complement renewable while keeping the energy security domestic.
- energy123 2mo agoIt makes sense for China because of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_dilemma The modern coal plants they're building support faster changes, and they have enough indigenous coal but they don't have gas.
- nixon_why69 2mo agoChina is continuing to build a shitload of coal alongside being the world's leader in renewable. It takes time.
- rsanek 2mo agoOnly as recently as last year did China stop increasing its net electric generation from coal. And if you look at all primary energy (not just electricity), their dependence on fossil fuels is something like 90%. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-mix?stackMode=relative&country=%7ECHN&source=total&metric=by_source https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-mix?stackMode=rela...