China’s total electricity generation capacity from all forms of energy is forecast to increase by 7.7% on year this year to reach 2.37 billion kW, according to a report by China Electricity Council on July 23. Within the total, by year’s end the portion fuelled by non-fossil energy will reach 1.12 billion kW, exceeding coal-fired electricity capacity at 1.1 billion kW, the council predicts.
By the end of 2021, China is forecast to have newly installed 180 million kW of electricity generation capacity, among which 140 million kW will be fuelled by non-fossil energy. With the fast installation of non-fossil electricity generators, their percentage in total installed capacity will be 2.5 percentage points higher on year, according to the CEC report.
Table 1: China’s installed electricity generation capacity forecast by the end of 2021
Source: CEC
China’s electricity industry had been actively moving towards a low-carbon future, under Beijing’s target of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. For this year’s January-June period, China’s total investment in electricity generation grew 8.9% on year to Yuan 189.3 billion ($29.2 billion), among which 90.1% was for the non-fossil-fuel sources, CEC noted.
By the end of June, the country’s total installed electricity generation capacity had grown by 9.5% on year to 2.26 billion kW, among which 45.4% was fuelled by non-fossil energy, up by 3.2 percentage points on year. The installed capacity for coal-fired generators accounted for 48.2% of the total, or 3.3 percentage points lower on year, CEC data showed.
Over January-June, China generated 3.87 trillion kWh of electricity in total, up by 13.7% on year. The average utilisation period for the country’s generators was 1,853 hours, growing 119 hours on year, according to the report.
Table 2: China’s installed electricity generation capacity by June
Source: CEC
