Russia has retained its position in the top five of leading countries in terms of coal-fired power generation development, as reported in the study “Boom and Bust Coal 2025. Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline” released by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) in April.
The overall capacity of coal-fired power plants launched across the world last year totaled 44 GW. According to GEM experts, this is the lowest figure of the last 20 years: it is almost 30 GW lower than the average annual figure for this period (72 GW). However, even this anti-record was higher than the 25 GW retired. As a result, the aggregate capacity of coal-fired power plants worldwide rose by 18.8 GW in 2024.
The record-low volumes of newly-launched coal-fired power capacity were caused by the phasing out of coal in most developed countries. For instance, 11 GW of coal-fired power capacity was decommissioned across the EU in 2024, four times higher than in 2023. Of these, 6.7 GW were decommissioned in Germany. In the 38 developed countries comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), coal plant proposals have decreased by almost 30 times over the past ten years, going down from 142 in 2015 to five today.
On the other hand, some of the world’s largest energy consumers are not only maintaining their existing capacities, but also building new power plants.
The biggest contributions to the development of the global coal industry are being made by China and India. China launched the construction of coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 94 GW in 2024. This is the highest figure since 2015. India has set a record for the number of new coal-fired power plant construction projects, totaling 38 GW.
Russia is not going to phase out of coal either. “Russia has recently emerged as one of the top countries for coal plant development,” the GEM study notes. “Altogether, the country has 7.3 GW proposed and another 1 GW of coal power under construction, placing Russia fifth globally in terms of coal power capacity development. At over 37 GW, the country also ranks eighth for operating coal power capacity and third for global coal exports, after Indonesia and Australia.”
Despite the development of coal-fired generation, Russia’s fuel and energy balance remains one of the “cleanest” in the world. As of December 2024, the share of coal-fired generation in the country’s total electricity generation is only 13%, while in Germany, for example, this figure is 20.9%.
