China’s Wind and Solar Energy Surpass Coal In Historic First

According to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), wind and solar energy have collectively eclipsed coal in capacity for the first time ever. By 2026, analysts forecast solar power alone will surpass coal as the country’s primary energy source, with a cumulative capacity exceeding 1.38 terawatts (TW) — 150 gigawatts (GW) more than coal. This shift stems from a growing emphasis on cleaner energy sources and a move away from fossil fuels for the nation. Despite coal’s early advantage, with around 50 GW of annual installations before 2016, China has made substantial investments to expand its renewable energy infrastructure. Since 2020, annual installations of wind and solar energy have consistently exceeded 100 GW, three to four times the capacity additions for coal. This momentum has only gathered pace since then, with last year seeing China set a record with 293 GW of wind and solar installations, bolstered by gigawatt-scale renewable hub projects from the NEA’s first and second batches connected to the country’s grid.

China’s coal power sector is moving in the opposite direction. Last year, approximately 40 GW of coal power was added, but this figure plummeted to 8 GW in the first half of 2024, according to our estimates. Despite the expansion of renewable energy under supportive policies, the government has implemented stricter restrictions on new coal projects to meet carbon reduction goals. Efforts are now focused on phasing out smaller coal plants, upgrading existing ones to reduce emissions and enforcing more stringent standards for new projects. As a result, the annual capacity addition gap between coal and clean energy has widened dramatically, reaching a 16-fold difference in the first half of 2024.