Discussion - Unleashing coal’s flexible potential while easing the transition to cleaner solutions

China is shifting its power system flexibility from coal retrofits to clean alternatives like battery energy storage. While coal retrofits are nearing exhaustion by 2027, the document argues that market reforms and updated dispatch practices are essential to prevent a reliance on new coal capacity and to meet 2030 emission goals.

• China's capacity for retrofitting existing coal plants to provide flexibility is expected to be largely exhausted by 2027, necessitating a shift toward clean flexibility solutions such as battery energy storage to sustain gains without increasing coal capacity.
• Battery energy storage is expanding rapidly in China, with 144.7 GW of 'new energy storage' installed by the end of 2025. The China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) projects this capacity will reach between 371.2 GW and 450.7 GW by 2030.
• The underutilisation of flexibility capacity in China is driven by structural issues in power market design, administrative dispatch practices, and inflexible inter-provincial contracts rather than physical capacity limits.
• China is moving toward a unified national power market by 2030, with significant progress in 2025 including the expansion of market-based trading, which covered 64.0% of electricity consumption in 2025 compared to 16.9% in 2016.
• The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that non-fossil resources could meet nearly 60% of China's flexibility requirements by 2030.

APA

Ember (2026). Discussion - Unleashing coal’s flexible potential while easing the transition to cleaner solutions. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/discussion/

Chicago

Ember. Discussion - Unleashing coal’s flexible potential while easing the transition to cleaner solutions. 2026. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/discussion/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Discussion - Unleashing coal’s flexible potential while easing the transition to cleaner solutions |date=10 February 2026 |url=https://ember-energy.org/chapter/discussion/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2026discussion, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Discussion - Unleashing coal’s flexible potential while easing the transition to cleaner solutions}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://ember-energy.org/chapter/discussion/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }