Taiwan's 2,400 MW Gas Plant Will Replace 1,800 MW of Coal and Cut Emissions 58%

Taiwan's 2,400 MW Gas Plant Will Replace 1,800 MW of Coal and Cut Emissions 58% Siemens Energy's Mai-Liao deal adds to the global coal-to-gas switching wave, but 2,100 GW of coal capacity remains operational worldwide. Siemens Energy has signed an agreement with Mai-Liao Power to provide major equipment and long-term services for a 2,400 MW gas-fired combined cycle power facility in Taiwan. The plant will consist of two units, each rated at 1,200 MW. It is designed to replace 1,800 MW of existing coal-fired generation.⁸ The numbers frame the trade-off. Carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity produced are projected to decrease by about 58% relative to the current coal-fired units. Once operational, the plant is expected to generate nearly 14 billion kilowatt-hours annually, roughly 5% of Taiwan's total power supply. The island is replacing a significant share of its baseload coal fleet with gas in a single project.⁸ That matters because the deal arrives at a moment when coal's share of global generation is under pressure from both market forces and policy. The IEA's Electricity 2026 report projects that global power demand will grow by more than 3% per year on average through the rest of the decade, but coal's share of the generation mix will be eroded by gains in nuclear, renewables, and natural gas. The IEA forecasts the share of renewables and nuclear in the world's power mix rising to 50% by the end of this decade.² The scale of what needs to be retired is enormous. As of 2024, global coal power capacity stands at approximately 2,100 GW, down slightly from peak levels as retirements in wealthy nations partially offset new construction in developing economies. Coal remains the world's largest source of electricity generation, accounting for roughly 35% of global supply. Renewables are now cheaper than coal in most markets, yet the installed base persists.³ China illustrates the complexity. Coal-powered thermal generation ticked up 1.5% in 2024, defying expectations that coal generation was peaking, although growth slowed to the lowest rate in nine years excluding the pandemic period. Thermal output reached 6.34 trillion kWh, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. For December alone, thermal output fell 2.6% year on year. The trend is slowing but has not reversed.⁴ Yet 2025 brought a shift. Carbon Brief analysis showed that electricity generation from coal fell in both China and India for the first time in 52 years, after each nation added record amounts of clean energy. Coal generation in India fell 3.0% year on year, or 46 TWh. China's coal generation declined 1.6%, or 90 TWh. The power sectors of these two countries drove 93% of the rise in global CO2 emissions from 2015 to 2024.⁵ China's coal output hit a record high last year at 4.83 billion tonnes despite the generation decline, according to Bloomberg citing official data. The country is mining more coal than it burns for power, stockpiling for energy security while building renewables at record pace. For 2025, Greenpeace analysts said renewable power could meet all of China's new power demand growth.^6,4 The IEA projects renewable output will grow by about 1,000 TWh annually through 2030, with solar PV alone accounting for over 600 TWh. If that trajectory holds, every coal-to-gas switch like Taiwan's Mai-Liao plant is a transitional step, not a destination. Gas buys lower emissions and dispatchable capacity while the renewable build catches up.² Siemens Energy's partnership with Uniper on decarbonisation projects extends the same logic across multiple markets. The two companies signed a cooperation agreement covering projects on power generation decarbonisation and sector coupling. The industrial partnership signals that gas turbine manufacturers see the coal replacement market as a multi-decade revenue source.⁷ The regional pressure is visible in the Balkans. Kosovo has been 400-800 MW short of demand due to planned outages of its coal-fired fleet, a regional trader told Montel. The shortfall pushed volumes onto neighbouring grids and lifted Serbian day-ahead power prices above EUR 100 per MWh. Aging coal fleets that cannot run reliably create the same price spikes that new gas capacity is designed to prevent.¹ What to watch is whether Mai-Liao Power reaches financial close and construction begins on schedule, and whether other Asian markets follow Taiwan's model of replacing coal baseload with large-scale gas combined cycle at the 1-2 GW project level. If China's coal generation decline accelerates through 2025 as Greenpeace projects, the global coal retirement timeline compresses and gas demand for power grows faster than current IEA forecasts.^8,4