China’s New Coal Projects Account for 90% of Global Total in First Half – Study
American Coal Council
Posted On August 2, 2020
By David Stanway, Reuters
China built more than half of the world’s new coal-fired power plants this year and accounted for 90% of new planned capacity, a study showed on Monday, with Beijing still commissioning new projects even as capacity worldwide declines.
Global coal-fired generation capacity saw a net decline of 2.9 gigawatts (GW) from January to June, the first drop on record for a six-month period, thanks to plant retirements in Europe and elsewhere, the U.S.-based think tank Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said in the study.
But China added 53.2 GW of capacity to its project pipeline in the first half of this year – 90% of the global total – even as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to boost its use of renewable energy as part of a broader anti-pollution drive.
