China Approved Enough New Coal Plants Last Year to Power the U.K.

The surge in approvals follows severe power shortages last summer when a drought dried up hydropower reservoirs while boosting air conditioning demand. Photo: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — China massively accelerated its coal power plans in 2022, quadrupling the number of new permits and approving new capacity equivalent to all the U.K.’s plants combined.

Local governments permitted 106 gigawatts (GW) of new plants, the most since 2015, according to a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitor. Construction has already begun on 50 GW, six times more than in the rest of the world combined, the researchers said.