Reuters reports from Beijing that China’s mostly coal-powered thermal generation grew by 1.5% in 2024, “defying expectations that coal generation was peaking.”

While growth slowed to “the lowest in nine years excluding the years of the COVID-19 pandemic”, the increase disappointed expectations that renewables would supply the lion’s share of increased power demand during the year.

As reported by this publication in a September 2024 issue, China’s coal output in August 2024 rose 2.8% compared with the same period in 2023. This was in response to increased industrial demand as well as to record summer temperatures. July was the hottest month ever recorded. As a result of the severe drought conditions experienced in 2023, hydropower output was also lower than forecast.

Nevertheless, expectations for 2025 are that with increased renewable energy capacity, China will meet all new electricity demand using renewable sources. This is according to Greenpeace East Asia Beijing-based project lead Gao Yuhe who also said that China would aim for an additional 200 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy installations by 2025.

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