The World's Coal Capacity Hit an All-Time High in 2023

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

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By Irina Slav - Apr 11, 2024, 3:00 AM CDT

Global coal power capacity hit a record last year driven by China, which built the most new capacity, but also helped by a slowdown in coal power plant retirements across the world.

This is according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a transition outlet that tracks energy trends. The data also showed that coal power plant retirement has been slowing down since 2020 when total retirements globally exceeded 40 GW. In 2023, this had fallen to a little over 20 GW.

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Meanwhile, China added 47 GW of new coal-powered generation capacity last year, which represented 66% of the global total in new additions. It was followed by India and Indonesia, which also added a significant amount of new coal capacity.

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“Coal’s fortunes this year are an anomaly, as all signs point to reversing course from this accelerated expansion,” Global Energy Monitor’s Coal Program director, Flora Champenois said.

“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,” she also said in comments on the report’s findings.

This appears to be easier said than done as coal continues to provide the baseload, dispatchable sort of power that even China’s massive wind and solar fleet cannot guarantee—hence the rush to build more coal capacity.

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