China suspends 104 planned coal power plants

Yulin, a city in Shaanxi whose prosperity is driven by coal, is not only facing the economic decline of the coal industry, but also the consistent existing conflict between the development of coal industry and the environment.

EnergyDesk

The Chinese government is taking dramatic steps in order to comply with the coal capacity target laid out in its latest Five Year Plan.

The National Energy Administration has announced that 104 planned and under-construction coal power projects – with a total capacity of 120GW – have been suspended.

Around 54GW of suspended capacity comes from projects already under construction. And that’s just in 13 provinces. More suspensions to come to light, and will update this piece if that happens.

In the electricity chapter of the 13th Five Year Plan, Beijing committed to a coal capacity cap of 1,100GW — which is still a sizeable increase on the 920GW capacity the country currently has.

But the number of coal power projects in the pipeline would have taken that figure to 1250GW.

Hence this raft of suspensions.

In the last year China has grappled with a coal overcapacity crisis, and has taken a number of steps and introduced several policies designed to tackle it.

Last March the government ordered several provinces to stop approving coal plants; a month later it touted the introduction of a ‘traffic light’ system for coal power station approvals; in October it actually began cancelling under-construction projects.

And this all culminated in the set-in-stone Five Year Plan.

A previous version of this article said China had suspended 85 coal plants, but that figure has been updated

Here’s are documents from the Chinese press

Source: EnergyDesk. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

7 responses to “China suspends 104 planned coal power plants”

  1. Mike Dill Avatar
    Mike Dill

    That pretty much takes care of any hope for any increase in coal exports.

    1. JeffJL Avatar
      JeffJL

      Given the low utilisation of the current plants perhaps not. It should though send a shiver through the coal export industries.

      1. jeffhre Avatar
        jeffhre

        Yes, the era of ever more efficient coal plants putting ever more economic pressure on older less efficient plants is drawing to a close. However, more transmission line construction will allow more renewable energy project commissions to continue the process.

    2. john Avatar
      john

      For thermal coal yes for coking coal no.
      Today the price for metallurgical coal is $280 which is very very high.
      For those producers of very pure carbon hard coking coal this is good news.
      Coking coal with impurities are heavily discounted so when you see a price of $280 just remember if it has 10% water and 8% impurities this is taken away from the price.
      As to thermal coal producers the picture is dismal indeed.

    3. Greg Hudson Avatar
      Greg Hudson

      Why would any sane person ‘hope’ for ANY coal exports? Local jobs is not a valid reason IMO

  2. Gary Rowbottom Avatar
    Gary Rowbottom

    Better show this to Palaszczuk, Canavan, Frydenberg, Turnbull etc and the CEO’s of the remaining Big 4 Banks that think making a new GREAT BIG COAL MINE for coal export in the Galilee basin is a good idea.

  3. Vicki Stevens Avatar
    Vicki Stevens

    We love you China, let’s hope our government pulls their head out of the sand, takes note and follows suit . . . . NO to Adani, Rinehart and the exploitation of the Galilee Basin, Great Artesian Basin, native lands, Barrier Reef, clean air and general global health.

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