If China’s coal consumption was flat or declining, then I could see those 50 GW of new capacity as being bargaining chips. However, coal consumption has been going up for the last 6 years. From the same source, below are the EJ of energy from coal, for each year listed.
China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan)
Year Coal consumption, EJ 2012 80.72 EJ 2013 82.45 2014 82.10 2015 80.38 2016 78.03 2017 78.90 2018 80.47 2019 82.52 2020 84.25 2021 87.54 2022 88.41
Coal consumption went up throughout the COVID crisis in China. There seems to be a growing demand for that nasty fossil fuel in China, as well as elsewhere in Asia. Indonesia’s coal consumption went up 60%, just in 2022.
- Pete