China also has over half of the world’s coal power generation. They are also still building more, just not as much as solar, but it’s still being added to. Coal power share in China fell in 2025 for the first time. But not because they reduced it, but it was the first time where they added enough solar/wind to outpace the adding of coal.
China also has quotas that require utility companies to buy a certain share of coal power. So you can’t get clean energy there by law, as individual or industrial user.
China also has the rare earths needed to produce batteries, from what I remember they sit on the largest reservers for them by quite a margin, but I don’t remember a source for that. So for them, adding battery based grid storage is easier than most of the world. Plus they are basically the only ones that even make any batteries anymore in the first place.
What this demonstrates is that China will use whatever the most efficient power generation is that gets electricity to the maximum number of people and industries for the lowest cost. They aren’t installing solar because they want to save the world, they’re doing it because it works. It’s better than anything else on the market and so they’re investing.
Notably, they are not installing nuclear power at the same rate. They plan to have 200 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035, but they’re installing more than that in solar capacity every year. That should tell you something.
China also has over half of the world’s coal power generation. They are also still building more, just not as much as solar, but it’s still being added to. Coal power share in China fell in 2025 for the first time. But not because they reduced it, but it was the first time where they added enough solar/wind to outpace the adding of coal.
China also has quotas that require utility companies to buy a certain share of coal power. So you can’t get clean energy there by law, as individual or industrial user.
China also has the rare earths needed to produce batteries, from what I remember they sit on the largest reservers for them by quite a margin, but I don’t remember a source for that. So for them, adding battery based grid storage is easier than most of the world. Plus they are basically the only ones that even make any batteries anymore in the first place.
Source for most of the info.
What this demonstrates is that China will use whatever the most efficient power generation is that gets electricity to the maximum number of people and industries for the lowest cost. They aren’t installing solar because they want to save the world, they’re doing it because it works. It’s better than anything else on the market and so they’re investing.
Notably, they are not installing nuclear power at the same rate. They plan to have 200 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035, but they’re installing more than that in solar capacity every year. That should tell you something.