{"id":4841,"date":"2026-07-31T12:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/?p=4841"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:42:07","slug":"china-solar-capacity-set-to-overtake-coal-in-historic-energy-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/china-solar-capacity-set-to-overtake-coal-in-historic-energy-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"China solar capacity set to overtake coal in historic energy shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s solar capacity<\/strong> is on the verge of surpassing coal for the first time, marking a major milestone in the transformation of the world’s largest energy system. By the end of June, the country had installed 1,274 gigawatts of solar power compared with 1,275 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, according to officials from the National Energy Administration.<\/p>\n

The China Electricity Council said in its mid-year report that solar power is expected to become the country’s largest installed energy source during the third quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

Coal also lost another symbolic benchmark during the first half of the year. Coal-fired power plants generated 49.7 percent of China’s total electricity output between January and June, the first time the share has fallen below 50 percent. Coal plants produced about 2.5 trillion kilowatt-hours during the period, according to Xing Yiteng, deputy director general of the National Energy Administration’s development planning department.<\/p>\n

Officials described the decline as a historic moment in China’s long-term effort to expand renewable energy and accelerate its transition toward a lower-carbon power system.<\/p>\n

Renewable energy accounted for 41.2 percent of the country’s installed power mix during the first half of 2026, another record. Combined wind and solar generation exceeded 1.2 trillion kilowatt-hours and supplied roughly one-quarter of China’s total electricity consumption.<\/p>\n

China’s total installed power generation capacity has now exceeded 4 billion kilowatts, making it the first country to reach that level. Renewable sources represent 2.45 billion kilowatts, or 60.7 percent of total installed capacity.<\/p>\n

Despite the rapid expansion, the pace of renewable deployment is exposing weaknesses in the country’s electricity grid. Solar utilization fell to 91.4 percent during the first half of 2026 from 94.3 percent a year earlier as transmission networks struggled to absorb growing renewable output.<\/p>\n

To address these constraints, investment in electricity grids increased 13.5 percent year on year, while spending on energy storage surged 74.3 percent as Beijing seeks to improve grid flexibility and integrate more renewable generation.<\/p>\n

Solar installations also slowed after policy changes introduced in mid-2025 ended guaranteed revenue mechanisms for new projects. China added 72 gigawatts of new solar capacity during the first half of 2026, compared with 93 gigawatts installed during May 2025 alone.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg reported that analysts expect installations to recover during the second half of the year, with China projected to add around 240 gigawatts of new solar capacity before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Although coal’s share of electricity generation continues to decline, Chinese authorities have no plans to reduce coal production significantly. The country’s latest five-year energy plan continues to define coal as a strategic backup resource, providing reliable electricity when renewable generation is insufficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s solar capacity is on the verge of surpassing coal for the first time, marking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4590,502,505,4589],"class_list":["post-4841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economie","tag-coal-power","tag-energy-transition","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-energy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4842,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions\/4842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}