The paper is devoted to the study of the characteristics of partial discharges in solid fossil fuels. The appearance of partial discharges in solid fuels occurs at very low voltages, which are not typical for most dielectrics. The activity of partial discharges leads to the onset of rock breakdown. The characteristics of partial discharges in the oil shale of the Huadan deposit (China), presented in the work, indicate the voltage value at which partial discharges arise and breakdown occurs, and also show how these characteristics depend on voltage. We attempted to explain the low value of the voltage of partial discharges in solid fuels, as well as to substantiate the possibility of using partial discharge characteristics to predict the breakdown of the interelectrode space for use in the technology of in-situ heating and the pyrolysis of solid fuels. Keywords: Oil shale, subterranean conversion, field distribution simulation, apparent chage measurement.