It's not just Australia though. In June EurActiv published "Germany pours cold water on EU’s clean energy ambitions".
And then there's this, from China Dialogue, August 3:
Experts are calling for the government to return to cutting capacity after policy reversal, reports Feng Hao
Satellite imagery reveals that many coal-fired power projects that were halted by the Chinese government have quietly restarted.....MORE
Analysis by CoalSwarm estimates that 46.7 gigawatts of new and restarted coal-fired power construction is visible based on satellite imagery supplied by Planet Labs. The coal-fired power plants are either generating power or will soon be operational. If all the plants reach completion they would increase China’s coal-fired power capacity by 4%.
One of the biggest issues facing China’s coal sector since 2016 has been too much generating capacity, not too little. So what changed?
Demand for coal-power rebounds
Recently published economic data for the first half of 2018, along with the latest policy adjustments, indicate that China’s power demand is rebounding.
Li Fulong, head of the department of development and planning at the National Energy Administration, said at a press conference on July 30 that coal consumption in China increased about 3.1% in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period last year. The main driver of that was coal-fired power generation. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show a leap of 9.4% in electricity use across the same period.
Meanwhile, the arrival of summer has led to temporary electricity shortages in many regions, with reports of power demand outstripping supply in Shandong, Henan, Hunan, Hubei and Zhejiang provinces. In Shandong the shortfall was estimated at three gigawatts.
This has resulted in a loosening of policy-level restrictions on the coal power sector. In May 2018 the National Energy Administration permitted Shaanxi, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui to restart construction of coal-fired power stations. Restrictions were also relaxed to some degree in four other provinces.
“A rebound in industrial demand for electricity seems to have shifted attitudes among policy-makers, who are now more accepting of overcapacity,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, energy analyst with Greenpeace.
Yuan Jiahai, a professor at North China Electric Power University, said that some plants are almost complete but not generating power or making money, while loans taken out still need repaying. This has led companies and local governments, which are under pressure to get projects operational, to lobby for a change in policy.
A lack of policy focus
The focus of the past two years has been on cutting capacity in the coal sector prompted by concerns about its rapid expansion and contribution to air pollution.
Power-hungry sectors such as construction grew rapidly early in the century, and by 2013 China had experienced 12 years of breakneck growth in consumption of coal and power. This led to overinvestment in coal power throughout the country and ultimately overcapacity and financial risk.
That blind expansion also worsened air pollution, and in some regions caused water shortages. The Chinese government was forced, for both economic and environmental reasons, to rein in the coal-power sector.
In April 2016 the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration – the country’s top economic planning and energy regulation authorities respectively – issued a joint document instructing provinces to limit total coal-fired power capacity. Almost half of all China’s provinces were told to postpone the construction of new coal-fired power projects. In 2017 the State Energy Administration again halted work on over 100 plants that were under construction....
Even for a big country, 46.7 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity is a lot of power. In the U.S. the rule of thumb is 1 gigawatt can power around 700,000 homes with the U.S. EIA saying the average home uses around 900 kwh per month. Divide by hours in a month, blah, blah blah and you get the U.S. 700K houses figure. Multiply by 46.7 and you have enough additional coal power for 32 million houses.
And that's on top of record solar installations.
However, China has dropped its 2020 minimum goals for solar power to 110 GW (from 150 GW originally),
Energy.gov says that a gigawatt is 3.125 million 320 watt nameplate-capacity solar PV Panels, which you should discount for intermittency.
Throw in the collapse of the U.N.'s Green Climate Fund:
Green Climate Fund ‘a laughing stock’, say poor countriesThe Fund has set itself a goal of raising $100 billion a year by 2020. It is at $3.5 billion total so far.
—Climate Home News, April 4, 2017
UN climate fund chief resigns for personal reasons while board meeting collapses
—Climate Home News, July 4, 2018
8 takeaways from the Green Climate Fund meltdown
—July 6, 2018
At the UN's Green Climate Fund, the honeymoon is over
—DevEx, July 10, 2018
And honestly you start to wonder if the whole Paris Climate Accord wasn't just for show.
