alt Hacker NewsThey're not really building anything other than renewables. Nuclear is a rounding error and new coal is just replacing old coal.
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toast0 • today at 10:34 AM
Stats on wikipedia [1] stopped breaking out coal from other fossil fuel ('thermal') production in 2021.
But coal was 4.1 million GWh in 2014 and 5.0 million GWh in 2021; that's a lot of (relatively) new coal. Fossil fuel growth since 2023 is a lot less than earlier years, so maybe they have hit saturation for fossil fuel generation. I would expect high fossil fuel prices so far this year would drive usage lower, the stats for 2026 should be interesting.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China
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China is still installing much more new coal power capacity then is decommissioning old coal power capacity.
Also the average age of Chinese coal power plants is much lower then the average age of US coal power plants. These new Chinese coal power plants could be used for decades.
Last available data from 2025.
https://www.statista.com/chart/36007/power-capacity-of-new-d...
https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-coal-plant-t...