China was building on the order of 80 gigawatts of new coal power in 2025 , with reports putting full-year additions at roughly 78 to 80+ GW and 52 large coal units commissioned.

What that means

That figure refers to new capacity added , not the total number of coal plants in the country. One report says construction on another 83 GW also began in 2025, which suggests the buildout remained very active even beyond the plants already completed.

Why the number varies

Different outlets are using slightly different measures: some count gigawatts of capacity , while others count large units or projects approved/started. A separate summary also notes that China had around 500 GW of coal capacity under construction, permitted, pre-permitted, or announced as of January 2026.

Bottom line

If you want the simplest answer, say: China added about 78–80 GW of new coal power in 2025.

TL;DR: China built a lot of coal power in 2025 — roughly 80 GW of new capacity, plus more projects started for future completion.