- China plans to reopen several coal mines.
- This is in response to rising electricity demands.
- Electricity demand rose by 7% last year.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has announced that several coal mines will resume operations. The reopening is due to the increasing demand for electricity as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Although renewable energy generation has been rising in China, the pace has not been able to keep up with power demand. Some estimates put the demand growth over the past five years at about 1,900TWh. According to the International Energy Agency, China’s energy demand increased by almost 7 per cent by December last year.
The NDRC has approved 15 coal mines to restart production across the Shanxi and Xinjiang regions. These mines will produce as much as 44 million tonnes of coal. Several mines will also reopen reopening elsewhere. China now accounts for over 50 per cent of global coal-fired generation capacity. While coal-fired generation has reduced in other parts of the world over the past year, it rose nearly 2 per cent in China.