Technology and EVs Send China’s Power Demand Surging

Chinese electricity consumption in the data services industry and for charging and battery services soared in the first half of 2024, driven by technology and electric vehicles, data from the China Electricity Council has shown.

Power consumption in data centers, big data, and cloud computing jumped by 33% between January and June compared to the same period of 2023, according to the data cited by China Daily.

China’s electricity consumption for charging and battery swapping services surged by 63.7% in the same period, Jiang Debin, deputy director of statistics and data center of the council, told China Daily.

Overall power demand in China is set to rise by around 6.5% this year compared to 2023, the council says.

The combined new installed capacity of grid-connected wind and solar power is projected to reach around 300 million kilowatts, with the cumulative installed capacity share exceeding 40% for the first time, the official said.

In 2023, China’s electricity demand rose by 6.4%, driven by the services and industrial sectors, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Electricity Mid-Year Update report earlier this month.

Electricity consumption per capita in China already exceeded that of the European Union at the end of 2022 and is set to rise further, the agency said.

“The rapidly expanding production of solar PV modules and electric vehicles, and the processing of related materials, will support ongoing electricity demand growth in China while the structure of its economy evolves,” the IEA noted.

Despite continued growth in coal-fired power generation, China reached a momentous milestone in clean energy in the first half of the year, as rising hydropower, solar, and wind output pushed down the share of coal in power generation to below 60% for the first time ever.

Coal-fired output continued to rise, as did all other power sources amid growing electricity demand in China. But the rise in coal generation was outpaced by much higher increases in hydropower and solar output.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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