Energy from the sun gets cheaper than gas power in China

Tuesday, 01 April 2025

Chinese electric utilities prefer solar and domestic coal over gas for power generation. Capital costs for solar at $1.65 billion of an exemplary project are less than half of the $3.9 billion of a comparable gas power plant, though solar produces less energy annually due to its low capacity factor (~20 percent) compared to coal (~60 percent) and gas (~50 percent).


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