Jakarta – A global coal-fired power plant capacity surge by 2024 has raised new concerns over whether countries are serious about their energy transition commitments. The latest data from Coal Plant Tracker, Global Energy Monitor (GEM), shows a significant increase of 18.8 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired capacity so far this year, which contradicts the pledge to reduce emissions in the Paris Agreement.
“Coal power set records last year, but not the ones industry would like to see. Last year was a harbinger of things to come for coal as the clean energy transition moves full speed ahead,” said Christine Shearer, Project Manager of Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.
GEM noted China as the biggest contributor with 30.5 GW of new power plant capacity added in just one year, reflecting weak enforcement of government policies and pledges to curb coal expansion.
The new capacity comes from 44 GW of plants coming online in 12 countries by 2024, ahead of 25.2 GW of planned retirements. As a result, total global coal power capacity now stands at 2,143 GW-about 13 per cent higher than when the Paris Climate Agreement was signed nearly a decade ago.
GEM also noted that some countries, such as the United States, are delaying the retirement of old power plants due to a limited clean energy supply. They said these delays occur mainly in countries without enough renewable energy capacity to replace coal.
Ironically, the surge in coal power is happening simultaneously with the rapid growth of renewable energy. This year, renewable energy generation recorded an increase of 585 GW – up 15 per cent from the previous year and accounting for 92.5 per cent of total global power generation capacity additions.
However, this growth is still not enough. To achieve the global target by 2030, renewable energy capacity must increase by 16.6 per cent annually for the rest of the decade.
Similar conditions also occur in Indonesia. The plan to develop captive power plants across Sulawesi and North Maluku is considered counterproductive to the national energy transition agenda. Dody Setiawan, Senior Climate and Energy Analyst for Indonesia, warns that this plan will actually increase the industrial sector’s carbon footprint.
“Producing materials for green technologies such as nickel or aluminium with dirty energy is against the principle of energy transition. Our smelters should start using renewable resources to reduce emissions,” said Dody.
According to him, based on the National Electricity General Plan (RUKN), there will be an additional 26.8 GW of power plants in the next seven years, and more than 20 GW of them are captive power plants serving the industrial sector.
This is despite Indonesia’s target of phasing out coal by 2040. However, if the RUKN plan goes ahead as scheduled, PLTU capacity is actually expected to increase by 62.7 per cent and only peak in 2037.
“If not corrected, this policy not only weakens Indonesia’s position in global climate negotiations, but also increases the risk of stranded assets and the burden of national energy costs in the future,” Dody concluded.
The increasing trend of global and national power plants shows that although the discourse on energy transition is increasingly prominent, its implementation is still full of paradoxes. Without concrete policies and implementation discipline, climate commitments will be difficult to realise. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: Cirebon Electric Power
