Concerns around reliability in China{\textquoteright}s electricity sector have rekindled interest in a traditional solution: building more coal-fired generation. However, over the past decade China{\textquoteright}s electricity sector has seen significant changes in supply costs, demand patterns, and regulation and markets, with falling costs for renewable and storage generation, {\textquotedblleft}peakier{\textquotedblright} demand, and the creation of wholesale markets. These changes suggest that traditional approaches to evaluating the economics of different supply options may be outdated. This paper illustrates how a net capacity cost metric\ {\textendash} fixed costs minus net market revenues\ {\textendash} might be a useful metric for evaluating supply options to meet peak demand growth in China. Using a simplified example with recent resource cost data, the paper illustrates how, with a net capacity cost metric, electricity storage and solar PV may be a more cost-effective option for meeting peak demand growth than coal-fired generation.
}, year = {2024}, booktitle = {iScience}, journal = {iScience}, series = {iScience}, volume = {27}, month = {02/2024}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224001962}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.108975}, note = {An open-access version of this article published in iScience can be downloaded here.\
}, language = {eng}, }