Coal becoming energy source grid only leans on for support

China's new energy development has won widespread acclaim from the international community. However, a small number of Western institutions, scholars and officials have singled out China's coal-fired power for persistent criticism.

From reports to climate forums, a narrative is being peddled that China's simultaneous boom in renewables and coal is illogical, economically wasteful and a betrayal of global climate goals.

This criticism is not just shallow, it is profoundly hypocritical and ignores the history, economics and stark reality of building a modern grid supported by renewable energy for the largest developing country.

These critics view the world through a distorted, postindustrial lens. Their own nations built their wealth on centuries of unfettered coal consumption. After their industrialization, they transferred many of their heavy and chemical industries abroad, primarily to China. Now, they have the audacity to lecture China, which in mere decades has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty by becoming the factory of the world.

About 65 percent of China's electricity powers its industrial sector, with much of it producing goods for Western consumers. When a Western household uses a product made in China, it is, in effect, importing a portion of China's energy footprint. They enjoy products from China, many of which offer good quality for the price, and then blame China for the emissions.

Western critics entirely miss the point that China's coal fleet is being increasingly transformed from a baseload workhorse to a power backup source to ensure the grid's stability.

As professor Wang Zhixuan from North China Electric Power University noted, coal's role is fundamentally shifting to that of a flexible "safety net". This is not a "double-down" on fossil fuels but a pragmatic recognition that wind and solar, for all their stellar growth, are intermittent; the sun sets, the wind stalls. But hospitals, homes and factories demand constant, reliable power.

What is the Western solution to this intermittency? Primarily, flexible natural gas-fired power plants. But this is a luxury China cannot afford at scale. China imports large amounts of gas and oil, leaving domestic coal, which comprises 90 percent of its fossil fuel reserves, as a critical pillar of its energy security. Furthermore, China's modern coal-fired power plants, which are just over a decade old, provide essential urban heating through cogeneration, having replaced thousands of polluting small boilers. Critics miss the point that before phasing out coal, the authorities will have to solve the heating challenge.

China now boasts over half of the world's wind and solar capacity, with 1 in every 3 kilowatt-hours of electricity generation coming from renewables. This is a revolution unfolding at a pace and scale unseen in human history.

Yet to ensure this green wave doesn't crash against the rocks of grid instability, a dependable backup is required. The expanding coal capacity does not equal expansion of coal use. In fact, utilization hours are falling, and the strategic goal is clear: keep the plants ready but idle and utilize their capacity only when renewables need support.

Ultimately, China's integrated strategy exposes a bitter truth: the West engages in climate moralizing from a position of deindustrialized comfort. It consumed the benefits of carbon-intensive growth for centuries, transferred the burdens, and now demands China leapfrog the essential stages of grid stability and energy security.

China's path of massively scaling renewables while using coal as a stabilizing bridge is not a contradiction. It is the most responsible and realistic course for a major industrial economy undergoing the fastest energy transition on Earth. Instead of misplaced blame, the world should recognize this complex balancing act for what it is: a necessary model of pragmatic, secure, and sustainable development.