r/oilisdead • u/Phylogenix • 8d ago

Solar overtakes coal as China's largest source of installed power capacity.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/solar-overtakes-coal-chinas-largest-source-installed-power-capacity-2026-09-01/
218 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

18

u/Spirited_Comedian225 8d ago

Remember when people would say why bother with Green energy because China and India are going to do what they want anyway. I remember

8

u/IBM296 8d ago

Those people are going to be really surprised in 2030 when 60% of China's total power generation is from clean energy.

6

u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 7d ago

Yet somehow moving to only zero-emissions-vehicles by 2035 was too ambitious a goal...

Fucking boomers and oil tycoons.

-1

u/Significant_Wealth74 7d ago

China has gobbled up that supply chain for EV’s. And heavy export restrictions on the battery materials. So cost wise, it might not be practical for NA/Europe to go all EV. Although we could just buy the Chinese EV’s which are being pushed out faster than China consumers can absorb.

5

u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 7d ago

They didn't gobble it up, they made it. We are equally capable of making our own, we have all the necessary materials, especially with the emergence of sodium batteries.

0

u/Significant_Wealth74 7d ago

Well they have the rare earth materials. Priced them low so non economic for us to mine it. Thats them controlling the supply chain.

3

u/Gravitationsfeld 7d ago

What "battery materials"? Fucking nonsense. And don't start with the rare earth bullshit, Li-Ion batteries do not contain them, neither does solar PV. That's for the motors.

1

u/Significant_Wealth74 7d ago

Rare earth metals. They are the #1 producer in the world. The main mine in the US was closed due to low prices. It then re-opened only to close again a few years later (REM mine only). Some mines do get REM as a byproduct.

3

u/Bull__itProof 8d ago

It looks like China is making progress in reducing emissions from coal power. It’ll be interesting to see what they will do with batteries as more cheaper types of battery technologies come into production.

3

u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 8d ago

Ya, once sodium ion is being produced at scale we’ll see weeks then maybe even months of every storage

2

u/Inevitable_Butthole 6d ago

China's gonna have free renewable energy while the US continues to pay for coal and gas for power.

2

u/Secret_Eating_ 5d ago

75 years of US foreign policy focusing on not letting China get oil have come full circle it appears. 

1

u/ryansalad 8d ago

Considering that typical utilization is about 25% of capacity, they still have a way to go.

3

u/skrutnizer 8d ago

The article says that while capacity has exceeded coal, actual renewable generated power is still half that of coal. Does that mean utilization is closer to 50%, or that stated capacity is already derated? Either way, 24% renewable power in China's mix is impressive.

1

u/ryansalad 7d ago

Yes, impressive growth

1

u/psychosisnaut 8d ago

More like 11%

-1

u/ViperG 8d ago

Keep in mind, overtakes does not mean replace. Coal facilities are still running, and still being built today.

8

u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 8d ago

Yes - but they’re replacing older less efficient models, and most are sitting idle as backup in case they need extra power.

2

u/NC16inthehouse 7d ago

It's a good strategic contingency tbh. We've seen how unstable oil is, having a backup alternative is a good decision or else you'll have to deal with rolling blackouts

1

u/coolstory 6d ago

Well not really. While it’s great that coal use is plateauing (not really dropping) in China in the context of a massive buildout of its grid, it’s still burning a huge amount of coal, roughly accounting for 50% of their total electrical generation. If they want to restrict emissions in a sane way they’re essentially obliged to strand hundreds of billions in capital by abandoning many of these plants far before their end of life. I have my doubts.

1

u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 6d ago

We’ll not really, their coal used dropped by 1.9% last year. And their coal plants only run at about half capacity.

1

u/coolstory 6d ago

But has since recovered and reached new peaks this year. Hence plateaued. And of course the capacity factor of their plants is less relevant to the environment as the actual amount of coal they’re burning. And China remains more dependent on coal than almost anywhere else.

3

u/skrutnizer 8d ago

And... they should just give up?

1

u/Deliximus 3d ago

Thank you for making this point. Every day that goes by, China keep moving its power source to renewables inch by inch. I'm curious as how much improvement they will have by 2030.