China's coal generation rises a fourth month as AI data centres reshape power demand

China's coal generation rises a fourth month as AI data centres reshape power demand Coal power rose for a fourth month as Hormuz shipping disruptions cut China's imports, while data-centre electricity use is set to double globally by 2030. China's coal-fired power generation rose for a fourth consecutive month in April, even as the country kept adding record wind and solar capacity, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air reported in a snapshot dated 2026-05-21. Total power generation grew an estimated 6.6% year-on-year, but weak wind, subdued solar output and extended nuclear refuelling outages pushed grid operators back toward coal¹. The rebound landed as China's seaborne fuel supply tightened. Shipping disruptions around Hormuz cut crude oil and natural gas imports by roughly 20% and 13% year-on-year in April, squeezing industrial users and the chemical sector¹. Rising domestic demand met constrained imports, and coal filled the gap¹. Thermal power commissioning surged more than 160% year-on-year in the first quarter to a record high¹. That expansion sat awkwardly beside the clean-energy build. Solar capacity additions fell 31% year-on-year over the same period, though they stayed above first-quarter 2023 levels, while wind additions rose 8%¹. The global picture is no calmer. The IEA's Electricity 2026 report, released on Wednesday (2026-05-20), projects global power demand growing more than 3% a year through 2030, with renewables and nuclear lifting their combined share to 50% by the decade's end and natural gas also gaining ground². The driver of that growth is changing. Data centres now account for about half of all incremental power demand in the United States, the IEA found in its global energy assessment⁶. Globally, data-centre electricity use hit an estimated 415 TWh in 2024 and is on track to reach 945 TWh by 2030, according to the agency's 2026 update, "Key Questions on Energy and AI"⁴. A single advanced server rack could draw as much peak power as 65 households by 2027⁴. The money is following. Global data-centre investment will reach $580 billion in 2025, overtaking the $540 billion going into oil supply, the IEA estimates³. China's role is set to shift. The country drove 50% of oil and gas demand growth and 60% of electricity demand growth since 2010, but the IEA expects that weight to rotate toward other Asian economies and the developing world³. Inside China, the supply chain is already pivoting. Battery output jumped 55.6% year-on-year in April on storage demand and exports, while solar cell production fell 25.6% year-on-year amid weaker domestic installations¹. Whether that storage build can absorb AI-driven load is the next real test¹. LNG markets have felt the strain. Asian spot LNG surged above $25 after damage to Qatar's export infrastructure and the Hormuz blockade cut supply forecasts, according to earlier reports⁵. JKM spot sat at $15.31 on Friday (2026-06-19), still elevated, and China's constrained gas imports leave it fewer ways to swap coal for gas in peaking plants⁵. The binding constraint may be wires, not megawatts. Investment in electricity generation has risen nearly 70% since 2015, but spending on power grids grew at less than half that rate³. The gap between where generation capital flows and where transmission lags is what traders should track before the next demand shock lands³.