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BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China's mostly coal-powered thermal generation ticked up 1.5% in 2024, official data showed on Friday, confounding expectations that coal generation was peaking, although growth slowed to the lowest in nine years excluding the years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data highlighted the challenges in phasing out coal-fired power while meeting China's burgeoning need for power to fuel energy-hungry industries and the electrification of its economy.

Power sector emissions in particular are considered key to China's decarbonisation because of the wide-scale electrification of China's economy, typified by its shift to electric vehicles.

Thermal power generation, which comes mostly from coal while natural gas-fired power plants contribute a small portion, was 6.34 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) last year, up 1.5% on the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

((colleen.howe@thomsonreuters.com;))