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China brought 78 gigawatts of new coal power capacity online in 2025, but also 315 gigawatts of solar capacity and 119 gigawatts of wind.
by layer8 6d ago
China brought 78 gigawatts of new coal power capacity online in 2025, but also 315 gigawatts of solar capacity and 119 gigawatts of wind.
- tonfa 6d agoAnd coal is mostly flat, while electricity demand is going up. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/09/China-Energy-Transition-Review-2026.pdf https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/09/China-Energy-Tr... (Page 14)
- leonidasrup 6d agoChina mined more coal in 2025 then ever, but burned less in coal plans. Coal is slowly shifting from electricity production to synthetic oil and chemical production. https://www.mining.com/web/chinas-coal-output-hits-record-in-2025-even-as-it-burns-less/ https://www.mining.com/web/chinas-coal-output-hits-record-in... https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-top-coal-region-expand-coal-to-oil-output-energy-security-push-2026-06-12/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-top-coal-regi...
- sippingabonedry 6d agoWhich is easy to do when you live an authoritarian state with plenty of vast desert wastelands to erect solar/wind farms. Was there a village there last week? Not anymore, it was in the way. And best of all they can build it all with Uyghur forced labor. Accolades for China all around!
- harimau777 6d agoYes, and? That's not really relevant to the topic at hand. No one has said that China is a utopia and paragon of human rights.
- piva00 6d agoI don't see the USA building out that much solar in its vast desert wastelands.
- consensus1 5d ago78 GW of coal is pretty damn near 78 GW. 315 GW of solar / wind capacity is nowhere near that level of utilization.
- Timon3 5d agoWould you mind sharing your source? AFAIK the coal plants are only backups, so it'd be very surprising if they're utilized as much as the solar capacity.