After last year’s first annual decline in coal power plant approvals since 2021, the Chinese pipeline of newly-approved coal-fired electricity generation rebounded in early 2025, Greenpeace East Asia said in new research on Thursday.
China approved 11.29 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity in the first quarter of 2025, Greenpeace’s review of official documents showed. This pace of coal-fired electricity approvals already exceeds the 10 GW China approved in the first half of 2024.
Last year saw a significant shift in coal power approvals, with a 41.5% year-on-year drop in approvals to 62.24 GW, marking the first annual decline since 2021.
But the pace of approvals accelerated this year, despite the continued boom in solar and wind power installations.
Official Chinese data show that by the first quarter of 2025, China’s installed wind and solar capacity reached 1,482 GW, surpassing the 1,450 GW in thermal power for the first time, Greenpeace noted.
“Continued coal approvals pose a significant risk,” said ??Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based climate and energy project manager at Greenpeace East Asia.
“Approving a new wave of large-scale coal projects risks creating overcapacity, stranded assets, and higher transition costs. That will ultimately undermine progress toward a cleaner, more flexible power system,” Gao added.
Globally, China is the leader in renewable energy capacity installations, but it is also a leader in coal-fired power and continues to be the key driver of record-high global coal demand.
In addition, China is looking to boost its domestic coal demand and prices this year. Coal prices in China have been depressed this year, weighing on the profits and profitability of the coal producers.
China has asked its coal-fired power plants to boost stockpiles with domestic supply as authorities aim to push up local demand and prices, anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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