China stands to waste Rmb900bn ($134.6bn) of capital expenditure on power plants that have been given the green light despite adding to over-capacity, Greenpeace warned in its latest report tracking the country’s coal fired plants.
An economic slowdown combined with intensive investment in coal, hydro wind and solar power capacity in the past few years has depressed utilisation rates in China, especially for coal-fired power plants and wind farms.
New targets for renewable energy and nuclear power as well as plans for further development of large coal deposits in the north and northwest mean that power generators face even greater competition in the future.