The Guardian reports:
However, in conclusions that should serve to further highlight the serious risk to the climate posed by Chinese coal-fired power plants the report predicts investment in new coal capacity will still continue to grow rapidly through to 2022 as 38GW of new capacity is added each year, equivalent to three large coal plants a month.
that is absolutely correct. You cannot see steam – you see water vapor. The Chinese could solve a lot of their coal pollution problems by installing soot scrubbers on power plants and install efficient combustors. The other coal problem is the small scale burners like homes and factories where there are a huge number.
I have only one serious concern about the Chinese fondness for coal. I believe they are burning the coal with poor pollution controls. This makes it easier for people to get confused about real pollution and CO2, something that journalists love to help confuse by making water vapor look like smoke.
Technically, steam is not visible because it’s a gas. We often call water vapor “steam” because it was steam moments before when it left the stack.