MARKETS

China's power evolution (and what it means for coal)

CHINA'S coal-fired power generation industry has to learn to adapt to environmental regulations, according to a report by energy expert GlobalData.

Staff Reporter
China's power evolution (and what it means for coal)

The report says China’s increasing population, urbanization and industrialization will push electricity demand upwards.

However, it contrasts this with increasingly harsher environmental policies that it expects will have greater sway in the future.

Coal-fired power plants form more than half China’s installed capacity.

It also has a large number of coal-fired power plants planned for construction between 2012 and 2020.

Before 2009 China was a net exporter of coal but became a net importer as demand climbed.

China independently shut down old and inefficient plants with a combined capacity of 70 gigawatts between 2006 and 2010.

Its 12th five-year plan – 2011-15 – has it aiming to produce 11% of its energy from non-fossil fuels by 2015, increasing to 15% by 2020.

The plan imposes a cap on coal power generation in order to reduce environmental damage and wind power capacity is anticipated to increase threefold as a result.

China follows the US with the second largest share of global thermal installed capacity. It has a 21.4% share.

In 2011 China’s total thermal installed capacity amounted to 765GW – of which 706GW came from coal-fired plants.

During the forecast period, coal-fired plants are expected to drive thermal installed capacity, which is expected to reach 1074GW by 2020, increasing at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.8%.

Total thermal capacity is expected to increase at the same CAGR and reach 1200GW in 2020.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2024 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of exploration trends and technologies, highlighting the best intercepts and discoveries and the latest initial resource estimates.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Automation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations using autonomous solutions in every region and sector, including analysis of the factors driving investment decisions