China and other nations might be planning to build more coal factories to stimulate their economies in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic; however, almost half of world coal factories will run at a loss this year, the analysis showed Wednesday.
China has more than 1,000 gigawatts of coal-fired power, accounting for nearly 60% of the nation’s total installed generation capacity and round 100 GW under development.
London-based environmental expert Carbon Tracker analyzed the profitability of 95% of coal refineries in operation or planned around the world.
It looked at 6,696 operational factories and 1,046 in the pipeline and found that 46% will be unprofitable this year, up from 41% last year, based on predicted revenues from wholesale power markets, ancillary and balancing services and capital markets, in addition to running costs, carbon pricing and pollution policies.
China, which produces and consumes about half the world’s coal, could be contemplating building more coal factories to stimulate its economy in the wake of COVID-19 after the National Energy Administration declared it was able to relax guidelines on coal energy investment, the report stated.
Practically 60% of China’s existing coal plant line is working at an underlying loss, it stated