{"id":8139,"date":"2023-08-03T09:05:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T01:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/?p=8139"},"modified":"2023-11-09T11:20:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T03:20:44","slug":"chinas-2023-coal-approvals-grow-to-50-4-gw-as-coal-constricts-space-for-energy-storage-climate-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/press\/8139\/chinas-2023-coal-approvals-grow-to-50-4-gw-as-coal-constricts-space-for-energy-storage-climate-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s 2023 coal approvals grow to 50.4 GW, as coal constricts space for energy storage, climate solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BEIJING <\/strong>– At least 50.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power was approved across China in the first six months of 2023, new research from Greenpeace East Asia shows, raising concerns not only about emissions but also whether key climate solutions like energy storage can scale up properly in an energy sector where coal continues to dominate, consuming limited resources and blocking energy storage\u2019s application.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe see a lot of new wind and solar and a lot of new coal. Our major concern now, aside from the obvious emissions problem, is that energy storage remains sidelined despite the key role it needs to play in the near future. Building renewable energy but no energy storage is like building wheels but no axel. The energy transition isn\u2019t just about buckets of wind and solar, but also the infrastructure that will tap those power sources into meeting electricity demand. Energy storage is a top concern for China. It\u2019s not just about building up a new power supply. It\u2019s about designing a system that will meet electricity demand,\u201d said Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based project leader with Greenpeace East Asia. <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace East Asia reviewed project approval documents, finding that the 20.45 GW<\/a> of new coal approved in the first quarter of 2023 has now grown more than doubled to 50.4 GW by the end of the second quarter. Across these six months, the provinces approving the most new coal in 2023 so far include Hebei with 7.71 GW, Jiangsu with 7.3 GW, Shandong with 6.68 GW, Guangdong with 6 GW, and Hubei with 5.35 GW.<\/p>\n\n

A separate analysis<\/a> by Greenpeace East Asia last week looked at which provinces are pursuing energy transition solutions by tracking top province\u2019s \u201ckey project lists\u201d. Results showed a 106.3% increase in the number of energy storage projects prioritized on Guangdong\u2019s key project lists between 2021 and 2023, along with a 41.2% increase on Jiangsu\u2019s, and 38.6% on Zhejiang\u2019s. The analysis suggests Guangdong and Jiangsu are emerging as potential hubs of green manufacturing. Even among the leading regional economies analyzed, however, renewable energy projects only made up 10% of all projects in Jiangsu and less than 4% in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that there\u2019s money to be made in becoming a green manufacturing hub. Provinces are cued in on that. But there is not adequate guidance from the central government. China\u2019s race to lead the green economy has begun. But the competitors are just guessing which way to go. Provinces need to develop clear guidance. And in China that requires policy signals from the central government. Coal is the problem. The signal remains that coal is still an option. The race has begun but there\u2019s still coal on the course,\u201d said Gao.<\/p>\n\n

China\u2019s National Development and Reform Commission last week announced<\/a> efforts to add flexibility to power grids and build energy storage capacity to avoid outages, which are key issues in China\u2019s power system. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cContinued coal deployment impedes the development of energy storage because they have virtually no supplementary application to one another. Energy storage enables flexible electric grids that coordinate frequent changes in the direction of electricity transmission among multiple electricity generation sources. Coal plants, on the other hand, take a long time to power up and cool down. They do not switch on or off efficiently in terms of emissions or costs. Coal plants engender an inflexible, unidirectional grid management where the coal plant remains on, even if demand momentarily dips. So long as provinces rely on coal, the application of energy storage is curtailed<\/a>. This is a risk because China\u2019s energy transition and the application of renewable energy at scale will require comprehensive development of energy storage,\u201d said Gao.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace calls for an end to new coal approvals in China, and a systematic policy shift to support not only wind and solar, but also the green energy solutions like energy storage that will be central to China\u2019s energy transition starting today. <\/p>\n\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

To read the full research briefing (in Mandarin Chinese) click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

For media enquiries please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

August Rick, Greenpeace East Asia, Beijing, (august.rick@greenpeace.org), +86 175 1040 4599<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace International Press Desk, pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org, +31 20 718 2470 (24 hours)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beijing – At least 50.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power was approved across China in the first six months of 2023, new research from Greenpeace East Asia shows, raising…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":8141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,100,18],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-8139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-reduce-air-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-coal","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8263,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139\/revisions\/8263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8139"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=8139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}