Coal plants making comeback in 2023

• 17 days ago (2024-04-12)
• David Flin

Coal 274 Emissions 57

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According to an annual report from Global Energy Monitor , global coal-fired power capacity grew in 2023, driven largely by a wave of new plants being built in China, which accounted for two-thirds of the global growth of newly operating coal-fired plants.

The growth in China, combined with growth elsewhere in Asia, and a slowing pace of retirements of older plants in Europe and North America has resulted in a total of 69.5 GW of new capacity coming online and only 21.1 GW of coal-fired capacity being retired, resulting in a net increase of 2 per cent in 2023.

According to the report, national growth figures were:

• China: 47.4 GW
• Indonesia: 5.9 GW
• India: 5.5 GW
• Vietnam: 2.6 GW
• Japan: 2.5 GW
• Bangladesh: 1.9 GW
• Pakistan: 1.7 GW
• South Korea: 1.0 GW.

Only the United States (9.7 GW) and United Kingdom (3.1 GW) retired more than 1 GW without bringing new coal-fired plant online.

Flora Champenois, Coal Programme Director for GEM, said: “Coal’s fortunes this year are an anomaly, as all signs point to reversing course from this accelerated expansion. But countries that have coal plants to retire need to do so more quickly, and countries that have plans for new coal plants must make sure these are never built. Otherwise, we can forget about meeting our goals in the Paris Agreement and reaping the benefits that a swift transition to clean energy will bring.”