{"id":465555,"date":"2026-08-25T02:25:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=465555"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:25:08","slug":"china-is-building-ultra-supercritical-coal-fired-power-plants-in-just-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=465555","title":{"rendered":"China is building ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants in just three years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joanne Nova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speed of construction would blow a Western political mind<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

China pumped out  78GW of coal fired plants last year<\/a>, which got me wondering why there was such a boom, especially since the current Chinese coal plants are only working at a bit over half their real capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, the boom was instigated after widespread blackouts in late 2020 <\/a>and 2021 shocked officials into ordering a major ramp up in coal plants to make sure it wouldn\u2019t happen again. By May 2021, China was telling the world<\/a> that because solar and wind power were intermittent or unstable \u201cthey must use coal power .. for flexible adjustment\u201d. A few months later, things were still dire, and two thirds of the nation was rationing power<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is though, 2021 was only four years before the big boom of 2025.<\/strong> Could they really build so many plants in so little time? Well, yes. Some of those plants were presumably already \u201cin the pipeline\u201d but many were only given permits in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Two new units were added to Yancheng-Binhai Ultra Super Critical Coal Plant, China <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The plant Yancheng-Binhai, in the satellite photo above, for example, started construction of two 1000MW units in 2023 and yet they were operating by June 2026.  These two units were added to a site which had two units already in operation, which makes things easier because they already have the transmission lines and other infrastructure \u2014 but these are ultra-super critical advanced plants. Australia hasn\u2019t even built one of these modern efficient designs, and new coal plants at all since 2009. Soon we\u2019ll forget how\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are plenty of other examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n