Is China doubling down on its coal power bubble? Over 150 new coal-fired power plant projects being permitted in China Authors: Lauri Myllyvirta, Xinyi Shen, Harri Lammi; additional research by Liansai Dong and Baoyin Yuan
New coal-fired power plants being permitted in January-September 2015
Summary In January-September 2015, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus gave at least one positive permitting decision to a total of 155 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 123 gigawatts – four power plants per week. This surge of approvals seems to have resulted from China’s decision to decentralize authority to approve coal-fired power plant projects Environmental Impact Assessment to the province level from March 2015. This is despite the fact that China already has severe overcapacity in coal-fired power generation. Electricity production from coal has not been increasing since 2011, and given targets for renewable energy, gas and nuclear, has no space to increase until