China boosts coal-fired power plants to nine-year high
In the first half of 2025, China expanded the capacity of coal fuel power plants more than comparable periods in the last nine years, despite the rapid expansion of renewable energies.
Between January and June, according to an analysis published by the Finnish -based Energy and Clean Air Research Center (CREA) on Monday, 21 Gigawatt capacity plants were attached to the grill. It was the first half figure since 2016.
Analysts expect the total to exceed 80 Gigawatt by the end of the year.
“Despite a rapidly changing capacity and production mixture, the construction of coal power in China does not show any signs of relaxation.
At the same time, China continues to expand green energy production. Crea projects, projects will expand more than 500 Gigawatts by the end of 2025.
Compared, Germany added the wind, sun and biomass capacity slightly below 20 Gigawatt in 2024 and brought its total to 190 Gigawatt according to the federal network agency.
The rapid expansion of green energy has already prevented emissions.
An analysis made by online portal carbon summary found that China’s CO2 emissions fell 1 percent in the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year.
Emissions only from the energy sector – the country’s largest greenhouse gas source – decreased by 3 percent in this period.
Crea Analyst Qi Qin warned that China’s clean energy explosion increases both economic growth and uncertainty, but continuous confidence in coal risks was wasted.
When the renewable output is insufficient, the Chinese government rely on coal.
However, Crea criticizes Beijing for rarely using coal power plants as a flexible spare, and criticizes that they are mainly used to increase the power when necessary, with a small number of incentives or rules to reduce them when demand decreases.
In addition to the already built plants, Beijing approved new coal projects with a united capacity of 25 Gigawatt in the first half of 2025 and 75 Gigawatt in new or revived applications.
Analysts believe that developers have hurried for their approval before 2030, when developers promised to peak CO2 emissions of Beijing.
It is still unclear which energy and climate targets will determine in Beijing’s 15th five-year plan for 2026-2030.
China, the world’s second largest economy and greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, is seen as very important in international efforts to cope with climate change.
In 2021, the international community agreed to take steps to the coal stage for the sake of the climate at a climate conference in Glasgow.
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