China’s coal production rose last month, though its share of domestic power generation fell, in a shift that will likely reduce imports and local prices.
Coal output rose 2.8% in July from the same month a year earlier, hitting 390.37 million metric tons, according to data released on August 15 by the National Bureau of Statistics.
July’s output was down from June’s 405.38 million tons, which was the strongest month so far this year. July was also the third-highest monthly production so far in 2024 and output has been trending higher since April.
The rising availability of coal in the world’s biggest producer, importer and consumer of the fuel hasn’t translated into an increased share of the total electricity generation, the primary use for the fuel.
Instead, China’s coal-fired power is losing market share to cleaner alternatives, a trend likely to continue, given the ongoing rapid installation of solar, and to a lesser extent, wind capacity.
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China’s thermal power generation dropped in July for a third month on a year-earlier basis, despite rising overall power consumption.
Thermal power output, which is largely coal-fired with only a small amount of natural gas generation, fell 4.9% in July from the same month in 2023 to 574.9 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh).
Total generation rose 2.5% to 883.1 billion kWh, with hydropower output jumping 36.2% to 166.4 billion kWh.
China is experiencing a hotter than usual summer, which has boosted electricity demand for cooling.
Hydropower is increasing off a low base in 2023, when output was affected by low rainfall.
Other clean energy generation is also grabbing a higher share, with solar up 16.4% in July and nuclear increasing 4.3%.
China has ramped up installations of renewable energy, with 102 gigawatts (GW) of capacity being added in the first half of 2024, taking total capacity to more than 700 GW.
About 26 GW of wind capacity was added in the first six months of 2024, with the combined wind and solar additions being almost seven times the 18.3 GW of new coal-fired generation.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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