Thursday, April 1, 2021

"China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020"

I had meant to include this little factoid in March 30's EIA: "Less electricity was generated by coal than nuclear in the United States in 2020" but somehow managed to misplace it.

From Reuters, March 28:

China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, nine percentage points more that five years earlier, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants, a global data study showed on Monday.

Although China added a record 71.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 48.2 GW of solar last year, it was the only G20 nation to see a significant jump in coal-fired generation, said Ember, the London-based energy and climate research group.

China’s coal-fired generation rose by 1.7% or 77 terawatt-hours, enough to bring its share of global coal power to 53%, up from 44% in 2015, the report showed.

China has promised to reduce its dependence on coal and bring emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gas to a peak before 2030 and become “carbon neutral” by 2060....

....MUCH MORE