China solar power capacity now bigger than coal power
China solar power capacity is now bigger than coal power capacity, the National Energy Administration of China states. Installed capacity is the maximum electricity a power plant could produce running at full output, not what it actually produces day to day. Solar power installed capacity in China reached 1,286 gigawatts by the end of July 2026. A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts. Coal power installed capacity stood at 1,285 gigawatts on the same date, a gap of about 1 gigawatt. The regulator states this is the first time solar capacity alone has passed coal capacity in the country.
This landmark achievement in China's green and low-carbon energy transition signals the accelerated development of a new-type power system with new energy as the mainstay.
Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University. Source 4.
Why more capacity does not yet mean more power
A longer National Energy Administration of China explainer, published a week after the first announcement, states the milestone hides a gap between having the equipment and using it. Solar makes up 31.5% of all installed power capacity in the country now, but supplied only 13% of the electricity actually generated from January through July 2026. The reason is that a solar panel only makes power when the sun is out, while a coal plant can run whenever the grid operator tells it to. Solar power generation still grew 15.5% year on year over those 7 months, reaching 802.4 billion kilowatt hours, the explainer states. The same explainer states the 1,286 gigawatts of solar capacity equals the generating capacity of 57 Three Gorges Dams, the large hydroelectric dam project in China, a comparison meant to show the scale of what has been built even though solar does not run as steadily as the dam does. Of the 1,286 gigawatts, 704 gigawatts sits in large utility scale solar farms and 582 gigawatts is spread across smaller rooftop and distributed systems, the Global Times reports.
Both figures measure the same technology counted 2 different ways in China from January through July 2026, installed equipment against electricity actually produced.
Show the numbers
| Share of capacity | 31.5 |
| Share of generation | 13 |
With China rapidly building a new power system dominated by renewable energy, this structural adjustment on the generation side will drastically reduce the power sector's overall carbon emissions.
Liu Zhiqiang, deputy director of the planning and development department at the China Electricity Council. Source 5.
More wind and solar capacity is planned through 2030
Coal is not disappearing from the power system, it is shifting toward backup duty, running when solar and wind fall short rather than supplying power around the clock. China combined wind and solar capacity stood at 1,840 gigawatts at the end of 2025, a National Energy Administration of China page states. The 15th five year plan calls for adding about 1,000 more gigawatts of combined wind and solar capacity from 2026 through 2030, reaching more than 2,800 gigawatts by 2030 and a stretch target of 3,600 gigawatts by 2035.
The 2030 and 2035 figures are targets under the 15th five year plan, not capacity already reached.
Show the numbers
| End of 2025 | 1840 |
| 2030 target | 2800 |
| 2035 stretch target | 3600 |
This capacity milestone is separate from an earlier one. All renewable capacity combined, including hydro and biomass alongside wind and solar, already passed coal capacity in June 2023, at 1,322 gigawatts. The new milestone is narrower, solar alone has now overtaken coal alone in installed capacity, while coal still supplied more of the electricity actually generated over the same 7 months.