In the first half of 2026, China added 117 million kilowatts of renewable energy installed capacity

Xinhuanet, July 30 – The National Energy Administration held its regular press conference. Pan Huimin, Deputy Director of the New Energy Department, briefed on the grid-connected operation of China’s renewable energy sector in the first half of this year. She noted that newly-installed renewable energy capacity accounted for over 70% of all newly added power capacity, while the cumulative installed share exceeded 60%. The combined installed capacity of wind and solar power stood at approximately 1.95 billion kilowatts, approaching half of the national total. Installed solar power capacity was roughly on par with coal-fired power capacity.

In the first half of the year, China added 117 million kilowatts of grid-connected renewable energy capacity, accounting for 73.9% of all newly commissioned power capacity, maintaining its position as the primary source of new power installations. The breakdown is as follows: newly grid-connected hydropower capacity reached 6.03 million kilowatts; newly added wind power capacity hit 38.62 million kilowatts; newly commissioned solar power capacity stood at 72.07 million kilowatts; and newly installed biomass power capacity amounted to 0.60 million kilowatts.

By the end of June this year, China’s cumulative installed renewable energy capacity reached 2.455 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%, representing around 60.7% of the country’s total power capacity. Specifically, hydropower capacity registered 454 million kilowatts, wind power 679 million kilowatts, solar power 1.274 billion kilowatts, and biomass power 48 million kilowatts. The aggregate installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1.951 billion kilowatts, accounting for about 48.3% of the nation’s total power capacity. Installed solar power capacity was nearly equivalent to coal-fired power capacity (1.275 billion kilowatts).

For the first time, power generated from renewable energy made up more than 40% of China’s total electricity output, meaning roughly one out of every four kilowatt-hours consumed nationwide came from wind and solar facilities. In the first half of the year, China’s renewable energy power generation neared 2 trillion kilowatt-hours, rising by approximately 9% year-on-year and accounting for 41.2% of the country’s total electricity generation. This volume surpassed the combined electricity consumption of the tertiary industry (991.6 billion kWh) and residential consumption in urban and rural areas (731.5 billion kWh), capable of meeting nearly 40% of the country’s overall electricity demand.

Combined power output from wind and solar energy totalled 1.25 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 9.3% year-on-year, making up 24.6% of the national electricity consumption, equivalent to one quarter of the total. The figure was approximately 1.3 times the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry (991.6 billion kWh) in the same period. The incremental power generation from renewable energy reached 159.8 billion kilowatt-hours, covering 61.9% of the growth in national electricity consumption.