- China’s share of coal power generation dipped below 60% for the first 10 months of 2024, but total coal power usage reached an all-time high.
- This decrease is likely due to increased hydropower and gas availability, not a decrease in coal dependence.
- China’s winter demand and commitment to avoiding power shortages might push the coal share back up.
The share of electricity in China generated from coal dipped below 60% of the total for the first time since the start of the year. Some have seen this as a win for the country’s transition efforts. Alas, it is a temporary one.
China’s share of coal power generation in the total mix stood at 58.7% over the first ten months of the year, Reuters’ Gavin Maguire reported this week. This is down from 61.6% for the same period of 2023 and 61.8% for the first ten months of 2022.
This may seem like a small but significant victory for the wind and solar industries of the country, and the global transition push as a whole. However, this is in percentage terms. In absolute terms, China’s coal power generation hit an all-time high this year, rising to 4,838 TWh from 4,724 TWh from January to October last year.
The data comes from transition advocacy outlet Ember and Maguire, who argued that “as China accounts for roughly 40% of all power emissions from fossil fuels, sustained reductions to coal’s use in Chinese power production are critical if worldwide pollution trends are to be reversed.”
The numbers, however, do not suggest that China’s coal use is in decline. What they do suggest is that demand for electricity is on the rise and China is using all available sources to generate it, temporarily reducing the share of coal because there is availability of gas and hydro, since solar and wind tend to underperform in the winter months.
The numbers, however, do not suggest that China’s coal use is in decline. What they do suggest is that demand for electricity is on the rise and China is using all available sources to generate it, temporarily reducing the share of coal because there is availability of gas and hydro, since solar and wind tend to underperform in the winter months.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
