Coalswarm satellite image: China may add 259 GW of coal capacity

Coalswarm, an international advocacy and research group that claims to have access to information on 13,000 existing and proposed coal-fired power plants worldwide through its Global Coal Plant Tracker, said satellite imagery showed China would add 259 GW of new coal-fired generation capacity
to its grid.

Coalswarm satellite image: China may add 259 GW of coal capacity

Coalswarm said in a new report that the Chinese government transferred permit approval for coal-fired generating units to provincial governments
between 2014 and 2016.
This policy shift has led to a significant increase
in coal-fired power plant permit approvals.

The provincial governments began permitting the construction of coal-fired power plants in late 2014 and continued until the end of
2015.
The approval rate for coal-fired power plants increased at least fourfold
during that period.
According to the report, China approved about 10 GW of coal-fired power stations in the second quarter of 2014 and about 55 GW
in the second quarter of 2015.

A moratorium is issued

Between 2016 and 2017, the Chinese government reasserted control of the situation and tried to mitigate the impact through a series of moratoriums, including an April 2016 directive restricting construction and plans to cancel another 103 coal-fired power plants, resulting in the January 2017 reported cancellation of 120 GW of future coal-fired power generation
.
According to the initial announcement, this also affected coal-fired power stations
that have already begun construction.

However, Coalswarm said that according to the latest news, these shutdown orders amount to rescheduling plants, not permanent shutdowns
.
Coalswarm noted that satellite imagery appears to indicate that coal-fired power stations are under construction or commissioned
.

For example, juxtaposition of images from 2017 and 2018 shows that construction work on Huadian Nanxiong Power Station has not actually been suspended
.
And in February 2017, the site appeared to show a largely unfinished power station
.
Meanwhile, images from March 2018 show considerable progress
in the completion of the cooling tower.
The Zhoukou Longda power station also appears to have been commissioned, as satellite imagery from March 2018 showed that the cooling tower appeared to be emitting water vapor
.

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