{"id":695689,"date":"2025-10-19T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chinas-power-paradox-record-renewables-continued-coal\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T16:00:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:00:25","slug":"chinas-power-paradox-record-renewables-continued-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chinas-power-paradox-record-renewables-continued-coal\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s power paradox: record renewables, continued coal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2abaaca602f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2abaaca602f\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chinas-power-paradox-record-renewables-continued-coal\/#Grid_and_transmission\" >Grid and transmission<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chinas-power-paradox-record-renewables-continued-coal\/#%E2%80%98Instrumental_economic_driver\" >&#8216;Instrumental&#8217; economic driver<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/china-is-installing-so.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/china-is-installing-so.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"China is installing solar and wind power at a rate that outstrips the rest of the world combined.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/china-is-installing-so.jpg\" alt=\"China is installing solar and wind power at a rate that outstrips the rest of the world combined\" title=\"China is installing solar and wind power at a rate that outstrips the rest of the world combined.\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                China is installing solar and wind power at a rate that outs<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>s the rest of the world combined.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Call it the China power paradox: while Beijing leads the world in renewable energy expansion, its coal projects are booming too.<\/p>\n<p>As the top emitter of greenhouse gases, China will largely determine whether the world avoids the worst effects of climate change.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, the picture looks positive. Gleaming solar farms now sprawl across Chinese deserts; China installed more renewables last year than all existing US capacity; and President Xi Jinping has made the country&#8217;s first emissions reduction pledges.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in the first half of this year, coal power capacity also grew, with new or revived proposals hitting a decade high.<\/p>\n<p>China accounted for 93% of new global coal construction in 2024, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air (CREA) found.<\/p>\n<p>One reason is China&#8217;s &#8220;build before breaking&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach, said Muyi Yang, senior energy analyst at think tank Ember.<\/p>\n<p>Officials are wary of abandoning the old system before renewables are considered fully operational, Yang said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Think of it like a child learning to walk,&#8221; he told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There will be stumbles\u2014like supply interruptions, price spikes\u2014and if you don&#8217;t manage those, you risk undermining public support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/china-continues-to-com.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/china-continues-to-com.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"China continues to commission high levels of new coal power capacity.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/china-continues-to-com.jpg\" alt=\"China continues to commission high levels of new coal power capacity\" title=\"China continues to commission high levels of new coal power capacity.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                China continues to commission high levels of new coal power capacity.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Policymakers remain scarred by 2021\u201322 power shortages tied to pricing, demand, grid issues and extreme weather.<\/p>\n<p>While grid reform and storage would prevent a repeat, officials are hedging with new coal capacity, even if it sits idle, experts said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s the basic bureaucratic impulse to make sure that you don&#8217;t get blamed,&#8221; said Lauri Myllyvirta, CREA co-founder and lead analyst.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They want to make absolutely sure that they don&#8217;t block one possible solution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                        <!-- TechX - News - In-article --><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Grid_and_transmission\"><\/span>Grid and transmission<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There&#8217;s also an economic rationale, said David Fishman, a China power expert at Lantau Group, a consultancy.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s electricity demand has increased faster than even record-breaking renewable installations.<\/p>\n<p>That may have shifted in 2025, when renewables finally met demand growth in the first half of the year. But slower demand played a role, and many firms see coal remaining profitable.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/chinas-changing-energy.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/chinas-changing-energy.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Infographic illustrating changes in China's energy mix, highlighting the growth of renewables, and at the same time showing the continued dominance of coal, according to data from Ember, a UK-based think tank.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/chinas-changing-energy.jpg\" alt=\"China's changing energy mix: coal is still king, green power making strides\" title=\"Infographic illustrating changes in China's energy mix, highlighting the growth of renewables, and at the same time showing the continued dominance of coal, according to data from Ember, a UK-based think tank.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Infographic illustrating changes in China&#8217;s energy mix, highlighting the growth of renewables, and at the same time showing the continued dominance of coal, according to data from Ember, a UK-based think tank.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Grid and transmission issues also make coal attractive.<\/p>\n<p>Large-scale renewables are often in energy-rich, sparsely populated regions far from consumers.<\/p>\n<p>Sending that power over long distances raises the cost and &#8220;incentivizes build-out of local energy capacity,&#8221; Fishman told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>China is improving its infrastructure for long-distance power trading, &#8220;but it&#8217;s definitely not where it needs to be&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Coal also benefits from being a &#8220;dispatchable resource&#8221;\u2014easily ramped up or down\u2014unlike solar and wind, which depend on weather.<\/p>\n<p>To increase renewables, &#8220;you have to make the coal plants operate more flexibly&#8230; and make space for variable renewables,&#8221; Myllyvirta said.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s grid remains &#8220;very rigid&#8221;, and coal-fired power plants are &#8220;the beneficiaries&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/clean-energy-contribut.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/clean-energy-contribut.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Clean energy contributed a record 10 percent to China's GDP last year, and drove a quarter of growth, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air estimates.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/clean-energy-contribut.jpg\" alt=\"Clean energy contributed a record 10 percent to China's GDP last year, and drove a quarter of growth, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air estimates\" title=\"Clean energy contributed a record 10 percent to China's GDP last year, and drove a quarter of growth, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air estimates.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Clean energy contributed a record 10 percent to China&#8217;s GDP last year, and drove a quarter of growth, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air estimates.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%98Instrumental_economic_driver\"><\/span>&#8216;Instrumental&#8217; economic driver<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Other challenges loom. The end of feed-in tariffs means new renewable projects must compete on the open market.<\/p>\n<p>Fishman argues that &#8220;green power demand is insufficient to keep capacity expansion high&#8221;, though the government has policy levers to tip the balance, including requiring companies to use more renewables.<\/p>\n<p>China wants 3,600 gigawatts of wind and solar by 2035, but that may not meet future demand, risking further coal increases.<\/p>\n<p>Still, coal additions do not always equal coal emissions\u2014China&#8217;s fleet currently runs at only 50% capacity.<\/p>\n<p>And the &#8220;clean energy&#8221; sector\u2014including solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower, storage and EVs\u2014is a major economic driver.<\/p>\n<p>CREA estimates it contributed a record 10% to China&#8217;s gross domestic product last year, and drove a quarter of growth.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has become completely instrumental to meeting economic targets,&#8221; said Myllyvirta.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the main reason I&#8217;m cautiously optimistic in spite of these challenges.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                \u00a9 2025 AFP\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>\n                                                <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                China&#8217;s power paradox: record renewables, continued coal (2025, October 19)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 19 October 2025<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2025-10-china-power-paradox-renewables-coal.html\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                            This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                            part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n                                            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2025-10-china-power-paradox-renewables-coal.html\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China is installing solar and wind power at a rate that outstrips the rest of the world combined. Call it the China power paradox: while Beijing leads the world in renewable energy expansion, its coal projects are booming too. As the top emitter of greenhouse gases, China will largely determine whether the world avoids the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/china-is-installing-so.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}