Power generation from coal and gas-fired plants in China last year went down for the first time in a decade, driven lower by alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, official data revealed today, as reported by Reuters.
The decline was minor, at just 1% to 6.29 trillion kWh for the full year. In December alone, China’s gas and coal power generation output dropped by a more marked 3.2%. While modest, however, the annual decline in coal and gas output came in the context of higher overall electricity consumption, which added significance to the trend. China’s electricity consumption ticked up by 5% last year compared to the previous year, the data showed.
In addition to wind and solar output, China also saw an increase in hydropower generation in 2025, to the tune of 2.8% for the full year and a stronger 4.1% for December, driving overall non-hydrocarbon generation higher.
According to forecasts, the decline in coal and gas generation is set to extend into this year, as China continues to build out its alternative energy capacity. However, past years have proven that the dependency of these alternative sources of energy on the weather could bring surprises in the form of higher demand for baseload generation from the coal and gas plants.
The decline in China’s power generation from coal and gas was expected by analysts. In mid-December, Bloomberg reported the forecast, citing official generation data, noting the role of wind and solar as drivers of the decline. In November, wind power output climbed by a substantial 22%, while solar power output jumped by 23% from a year earlier, the report pointed out. Yet just a month earlier, wind was down by 12%, and solar grew a lot more weakly, at 5.9%.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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