China To Double Coal-Fired Power Plant Capacity…Aims To Avoid European, US Blunders

China continues to barrel ahead with the new construction, expansion of coal fired power plants

In Germany, while radical groups of climate-crazies like Extinction Rebellion and Last Generation are gluing themselves to road and airport tarmac surfaces to rescue the planet from the myth that is the climate catastrophe, China is planning to double the capacity of its coal-fired power plants, reports German online Blackout News here.

A long way to go before China turns green. Coal still number 1 by far. Source: https://ourworldindata.org/energy

“China is building a huge number of new coal-fired power plants, possibly more than the rest of the world combined,” reports Blackout News, citing Bloomberg. But that huge added capacity allegedly will only serve as back-up for renewable energies. “The power plants will likely never operate at full capacity.”

4 times more than what Germany needs

By the end of 2023, China plans to build new coal-fired power plants with a capacity of at least 165 gigawatts – which is equivalent to more than double of Germany’s current total electric power demand.

That figure is estimated to rise to “a total of 270 gigawatts in the five years to 2025”. China’s planned added capacity would be more than the rest of the world.

So why would China barrel ahead at warp speed to install coal-fired power plants?

The answer is that its leaders see the huge blunders made by countries who chaotically rushed into green energies without any plan whatsoever, like Germany, which this winter is facing rolling brownouts due to a grid that’s been made unstable by green energies and shutdowns of coal and nuclear power plants. China aims to avoid the German power debacle.

“China’s strategy is responding to mistakes made in the U.S. and Europe with its expansion. There, people stopped investing in fossil fuel production and infrastructure before renewables were able to replace them,” summarizes Blackout News.

No way around conventional power plants 

Also China’s strategies demonstrate how it is physically impossible to solely rely on wind and solar energy, and that a huge fossil fuel back-up system is imperative and unavoidable. President Xi Jinping claims the country’s aim is to eventually phase out fossil fuels, and is following the strategy of “building new before discarding old.” But clearly China is doing lots of new building of the old, and little discarding.

The wacko protesters should be gluing themselves in China if they’re really concerned about green energy progress.




17 responses to “China To Double Coal-Fired Power Plant Capacity…Aims To Avoid European, US Blunders”

  1. Richard Greene

    The article is about using coal to generate electricity. The chart is for primary energy sources, NOT just the fuel sources for electricity generation.
    Coal is used for 63.6% of electricity generation, more than the percentage of coal used for primary energy in China.

    The correct chart for this article is here”

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1235176/china-distribution-of-electricity-production-by-source/

  2. Richard Greene

    Unfortunately, The above Statista chart is paywalled
    Use this EIA text as an alternative:

    “Coal supplied about 55% of China’s total energy consumption in 2021, down from 56% in 2020 and 70% in 2001.8 Petroleum and other liquids is the second-largest fuel source, accounting for 19% of the country’s total energy consumed in 2021. Although China has diversified its energy supplies and has replaced some oil and coal use with cleaner burning fuels in recent years, hydroelectric sources (8%), natural gas (9%), nuclear power (2%), and non-hydro renewables (7%) accounted for relatively small shares of China’s energy mix. However, natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy consumption steadily increased between 2001 and 2021, which offset the drop in coal use9 (Figure 1).”

    SOURCE OF QUOTE:
    https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/CHN

  3. voza0db

    All that building depends on the numbers of PCR kits lockdowns they’ll do till then!

  4. John Hultquist

    With more coal, they can add wind and solar without disrupting the grid.
    But that huge added capacity allegedly will only serve as back-up for renewable energies. “The power plants will likely never operate at full capacity.”

    Remove the word “only” from this statement and it becomes technically true. It is likely that supporting wind and solar keeps the rest of the world from having viable industries, so sales can continue into those markets. It would not be noticed in the China grids if wind and solar stopped completely.

  5. Cementafriend

    The real reason is that Chinese Engineers understand thermodynamics and know that there is no climate crisis and that CO2 is a beneficial gas. There have been posts that show that Xi studied some Chemical Engineering at University. Thermodynamics and Heat transfer are important part of Chemical Engineering study. China is happy while lies about climate are causing the Western World to destroy itself.
    Please look up the Lapse rate and the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

  6. drumphish

    China has large anthracite deposits, they have the coal. China uses half of all coal consumed worldwide, a known known.

    Mongolia has coal, 95 percent of electricity is generated with coal in Mongolia, Ulaanbatar wants power and lights.

    Manitoba has water, 95 percent of the electricity generated in Manitoba is from hydro, lots of electricity, Minnesota sometimes purchases electricity from Manitoba.

    You use the resource that is the most convenient and abundant, electricity is the premier usable energy. Everybody wants electricity. A light bulb works better than a kerosene lamp, hands down.

    If you can generate electricity with coal, might as well.

  7. Graeme No.3

    Even if a country (UK, Australia) or region (the EU) did stop using coal, renewables are so variable that backup will have to come from gas-fired (or diesel) ‘peaking plants’ so there will still be CO2 emissions and at a higher cost. With lithium in short supply batteries (if available from the major supplier China) will be even more expensive.
    So when the gullible country goes into economic collapse from the rush into renewables+gas guess who will be there “asking” for debt payments in commodities (like coal) that they can use. HINT they’re not building coal plants with an estimated life of 50 years so they can shut them done in 25 years.

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  9. Tom Anderson

    I would second all of the above comments, adding only that the “skeptical” argument has been lost (it never existed) by conceding that there is a “greenhouse.” That idea and all that flows from it is purely and patently imaginary. No greenhouse, no debate, game over. Too bad, however, that we have already surrendered. Is stupidity like this obligatory?

    1. John Hultquist

      While I agree there is not a “greenhouse”, there are radiatively active gases. What these do is complicated in the real-world (not the laboratory sense). Water vapor is the main radiatively active molecule and most agree it plays a role in Earth’s atmosphere. What the Carbon Dioxide molecule does, is likely somewhere between nothing and not much.

      Regardless of the science, members of the global comrades of the “United Nations”, one world, and redistribution fans have no need of science. They have accepted AGW from CO2 as an axiom that is neither disprovable nor open for discussion. Being much like a religion (some say cult), there is not much you or I can do about this. Note the many predictions that have failed. The cult members do not care.
      Two things are or will happen. Many of the top ranks are of an age** that will be thinning in the next 10 years, and the younger folks will realize they have been wrongly indoctrinated.

      **James Hansen is 81, John F. Kerry is 79, Al Gore is 74, Guterres is 73, Christine Lagarde is 66 and looks 80, Michael Mann is 57 – over weight and looks 70

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  14. IMO

    Hi there,

    The title of this post is incorrect. The source documents said that China was “doubling down” on coal, but that does not mean that China is doubling installed coal-fired power plant capacity. China currently uses around 1,000 GW of coal, and these proposals would increase that total by 165 to 270 GW. Still a big increase, but not a doubling of capacity by any stretch.

    https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants/

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