China’s Wind and Solar Capacity Now Exceeds Coal for the First Time
Published · Updated · 3 min read
China has hit a historic milestone in clean energy. For the first time ever, the country’s combined wind and solar power capacity has surpassed its total coal capacity, marking a turning point in how the world’s largest electricity consumer powers itself.
By the end of 2025, China’s total installed power capacity reached 3,890 gigawatts. Solar capacity hit 1,200 gigawatts, up 35 percent from the year before. Wind capacity reached 640 gigawatts, up 23 percent. Together, they now exceed the country’s coal capacity of just over 1,500 gigawatts.
A Scale the World Has Never Seen
In 2025 alone, China installed more than 300 gigawatts of new solar capacity and 100 gigawatts of new wind capacity. That is more solar and twice as much wind as the rest of the world combined.
Overall, the country added 543 gigawatts of new power capacity in a single year. That figure is equivalent to the entire installed capacity of Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined.
China now produces 91 percent of the world’s solar modules and 39 percent of global wind turbines. This manufacturing scale has pushed down the cost of clean energy not just at home, but worldwide.
Clean Energy Is Now an Economic Engine
The shift is not just about electricity. Clean energy industries drove more than 90 percent of investment growth and more than half of GDP growth in China last year.
The sector contributed the equivalent of $2.1 trillion to the Chinese economy in 2025, making it a critical driver of growth at a time when other parts of the economy faced headwinds.
In April 2025, wind and solar together generated a quarter of China’s electricity, the highest monthly share ever recorded. The solar share alone has tripled in five years, rising from 4.1 percent in April 2020 to 12.4 percent in April 2025.
Storage Is Keeping the Lights On
A key part of China’s success is its rapid build-out of energy storage. Grid-related storage capacity exceeded 213 gigawatts in 2025, with 74 gigawatts of new storage added during the year.
Battery costs fell 27 percent in 2025 alone, reaching record lows. This drop is making it cheaper for solar and wind projects to store power and release it when demand is highest.
Without enough storage, excess renewable power goes to waste. The storage infrastructure China has built is helping it integrate record amounts of clean energy while keeping the grid stable.
What Comes Next
Projections from the China Electricity Council suggest that solar capacity alone could surpass coal in 2026. Non-fossil sources could account for 63 percent of the power mix this year, with coal’s share falling to 31 percent.
State media has indicated that coal consumption is expected to peak around 2027. Coal will remain part of the energy mix for years, but its role as the dominant fuel is ending sooner than many had predicted.
Challenges remain. China proposed a record 161 gigawatts of new coal plants in 2025, citing energy security concerns. In some western provinces, curtailment rates exceed 30 percent, meaning large amounts of renewable power go unused due to grid infrastructure gaps.
A Signal to the Rest of the World
Globally, renewables overtook coal as the leading source of electricity generation in 2025 for the first time on record. Still, fossil fuels accounted for roughly 80 percent of electricity generation worldwide.
The International Energy Agency says reaching net-zero by 2050 requires tripling global renewable capacity to 11,500 gigawatts by 2030. Over 90 percent of new renewable energy projects are already cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives, according to the United Nations.
China’s milestone shows the transition is both technically possible and economically viable. The bigger question now is whether other governments will move fast enough to match it.
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