China installed a record capacity of solar and wind in 2024 – in numbers

China saw monumental solar and wind growth in 2024, according to data released today by its National Energy Administration (NEA).

China’s installed capacity shot up by 14.6% last year, now surpassing 3,348 gigawatts (GW).

Solar saw the biggest leap, with a record-breaking 45.2% increase (+277 GW), achieving 887 GW overall. Wind power also saw solid growth, climbing 18% (+80 GW) to almost 521 GW.

In 2020, President Xi Jinping set a goal of at least 1,200 GW of solar and wind capacity by 2030. China met that target last year – nearly six years ahead of schedule – according to NEA data from August.

The country has also built nearly twice as much wind and solar as every other country combined.

Hydropower rose 3.2% to nearly 436 GW, and nuclear ticked up 6.9% to reach close to 61 GW. Meanwhile, thermal capacity grew by 3.8% to over 1,444 GW. (The NEA doesn’t break down what powers the thermal capacity, but my educated guess is mostly fossil fuels.)

On the generation side, China, the world’s largest electricity producer, produced 9,418 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024 – a 4.6% increase compared to the year before. Breaking it down, thermal power generation was up 1.5%, hydropower and wind both grew by 11%, and solar led the pack again with a massive 28% boost. Electricity consumption also saw significant growth, jumping 6.8% to 9,852 TWh in 2024.

China is far ahead of everyone else with renewable energy installations, but coal still plays a big role in the country’s energy mix. That said, there are signs it might be starting to kick its coal habit. Coal power permits dropped by a massive 83% in H1 2024 compared to H1 2023, and no new coal-based steelmaking projects were approved during that time.

Electrek’s Take

No. 1 polluter, China, was already far ahead of the No. 2 polluter, the US, in the transition to renewables. But with Donald Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement (joining just Iran, Libya, and Yemen) again, halting wind project permitting and leasing, and issuing a series of foolish executive orders favoring fossil fuels and putting obstacles in the lucrative renewable sector’s way, it looks like China is poised to leave the US even further in the dust.

Read more: The US’s largest offshore wind farm is on budget and on time

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