Global Energy Monitor
Global Coal Plant Tracker
Unit-level database of coal-fired power units of 30 MW or more: operating units, units proposed since 2010 and units retired since 2000, with capacity, status (announced, pre-permit, permitted, construction, shelved, cancelled, operating, mothballed, retired), owner and parent, start and planned retirement years, technology, location and estimated CO2. The July 2026 release covers 14,674 units in 111 countries. Its "Coal Plants by Country (MW)" table totals 2,226,469 MW operating, 260,301 MW under construction and 502,744 MW announced, pre-permit or permitted. Capacity is not generation. Unit CO2 estimates use capacity factors derived from Ember generation data.
Numbers published from it
None yet: this source is registered and its licence checked, and its numbers are being prepared.
Licence and credit
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- What the terms say
“Copyright © Global Energy Monitor. Global Coal Plant Tracker, January 2026 release. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.”
From the producer's terms, checked 2026-10-04 by a person (the page blocks automated checks).
- Credit we give
- Global Coal Plant Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, {version} release. © Global Energy Monitor, CC BY 4.0.
- Copy of the raw file
- Not allowed: we keep a private copy for our own checks and publish its fingerprint.
- Cite as
- Global Coal Plant Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, {version} release.
Files
The unit-level workbook (the January 2026 edition was Global-Coal-Plant-Tracker-January-2026.xlsx, with tabs "About" and "Units"). A person opens https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-coal-plant-tracker/, clicks "Download data", completes GEM's download form and saves the workbook; then reads the About tab's licence line and any carve-outs (see the header of this file) and records it with uv run envdash snapshot add --source gem-coal-plant-tracker --file <path>.
Downloaded by hand (no stable direct link).
"Coal Plants by Country (MW)": capacity by status for each country, with TOTAL and "Percent China" rows (5,695 bytes).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_6AkrRZOn3ZXhSV9O6tZnX-m7aJsfG9HiQ_iEqBkbW8/export?format=csv"Coal Plants by Region (MW)": capacity by status for each region and subregion (2,278 bytes).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1syW5vTgJhSpAh_z-QvlMf33oViVEk1cjJqOAHO5iYSs/export?format=csv"Newly Operating Coal Plants by Year (MW)": capacity entering operation by country, 2000 to 2025 and H1 2026 (10,775 bytes).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j35F0WrRJ9dbIJhtRkm8fvPw0Vsf-JV6G95u7gT-DDw/export?format=csv"Retired Coal Plants (MW)": capacity retired by country, 2000 to 2025 and H1 2026 (9,603 bytes).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t3gO35bzcVI8ekq9318jBUq6nd7UADcut4gY3vjHZMM/export?format=csv"Planned Coal Plant Retirements (MW)": operating capacity with a planned retirement year, by country, 2026 to 2040 (6,143 bytes).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E82_2I7n4__oFzDTWVuZwPstfr1tk4jn1kFw4E_gf5w/export?format=csv
Status
- Programme
- July 2026 release (the tracker page: "The most recent release of this data was in July 2026."). GEM is a philanthropically funded non-profit; not a US federal programme.
- Updates
- Twice a year, around January and July
- Next release
- 2027-01-31: GEM says the data "are updated bi-annually, around January and July" and announces no date; 31 January 2027 is the check-by date for the January 2027 release, not an announced date.
- Last check
- Downloaded by hand (2026-10-05T11:03:16Z)