China halts construction of new coal-fired power plants
Energy — di Rudi Bressa
The halt by Chinese authorities affects 30 power plants that would have produced 17 GW of electricity, the equivalent of the United Kingdom's coal-fired output.
China halts construction of new coal-fired power plants
The halt by Chinese authorities affects 30 power plants that would have produced 17 GW of electricity, the equivalent of the United Kingdom's coal-fired output.
Coal is falling out of China's energy expansion plans. Confirmation of this, beyond the closure of around a thousand mines, comes from the Chinese authorities, who have reportedly decided to halt construction of at least 30 new coal-fired power plants. Ten of these were already under construction.
The halt, according to the country's energy authority, will affect the whole of Chinese territory but will apply particularly where energy capacity is already in surplus, such as in the inland provinces of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shaanxi.
The end of the coal era?
This news comes just days before the start of Cop22 and during the days in which the Paris Agreement will enter into force (4 November 2016), and it demonstrates two things. The first is that China has seen electricity production grow enormously in recent years, despite a slowdown in demand (according to the national energy authority, demand has fallen to 1978 levels). The second is that the eastern giant is, albeit with some reservations, choosing other energy sources at the expense of coal. Confirmation comes from those 30 new GW of wind power installed in 2015 alone, or from solar photovoltaic, which grew by 20 GW in the first six months of 2016.
Coal-fired power plants: this is only the beginning
But this is only the beginning, as the figures confirm. At the end of February, China's generation capacity reached 1,485 GW, with annual growth of 11.8 per cent. Thermal power, produced mainly from coal, increased by 9.4 per cent per year.
#US, #China, #India championing change
Renewables overtake coal as world’s largest source of power capacity ft.com/content/09a1f9… via @FT
Renewables overtake coal as world’s largest source of power capacity ft.com/content/09a1f9… via @FT
The glass is half full, then, but it will help China not to exceed its carbon budget by 2020 (that is, the amount of CO2 a country can emit in order to stay below the critical threshold of 2°C by 2050).
The glass is also half full because this decision confirms the trend signalled a few days ago by the International Energy Agency in its Medium-Term Renewable Market Report: for the first time, renewable energy has overtaken coal. And, perhaps surprisingly, it is China that holds the record: 40 per cent of all newly installed capacity comes from the East.