China Coal Generation Falls as Clean Power Absorbs Demand — SkimNews
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- Thermal generation fell 0.7% in 2025 even as China's electricity demand jumped 5%, with coal generation flat on a 12-month rolling average since early 2024, according to Ember.
- Coal generation stopped growing in 17 of 26 Chinese provinces and regions analyzed, including industrial heavyweights Shandong and Hunan, which together account for more than half of China's thermal power capacity.
- Battery storage overtook pumped hydro as China's largest source of installed energy storage at the end of 2024 and grew another 84% in 2025, with average utilization roughly doubling between 2022 and 2025.
- Fossil fuel use has peaked in 8 of the 11 industrial sectors tracked by Ember, falling 26% in food and beverage manufacturing, 52% in transport equipment, and 71% in fossil fuel extraction — while industrial output per person continues to rise.
- Electric passenger cars reached 67% of new-car sales in China in June 2026, and electric trucks hit 26% of new truck sales in 2025; nine of every 10 electric trucks sold worldwide in 2025 were sold in China.
- China's EV fleet displaced an estimated 400,000 barrels per day of gasoline demand in 2024, up from roughly 100,000 bpd in 2020, and total electrification avoided at least 1 million barrels per day of oil demand.
- China's clean technology exports topped $220 billion in 2025 and accounted for 6.6% of all Chinese exports in the first half of 2026, up from 2.7% in 2020 — the same countries that fueled China's coal and oil boom are now buying Chinese EVs, batteries, and solar panels.
Why it matters: China accounted for roughly half of global oil demand growth and more than 90% of coal demand growth between 2000 and 2025, so its peak — already visible in Ember's data and formalized in Beijing's goal of peaking oil and coal by 2030 — directly undermines the long-term demand assumptions of fossil fuel producers worldwide while bolstering the export market for China's $220 billion clean-tech industry.
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