China continues to lead the world in wind and solar buildout, with twice as much capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined.
According to Global Energy Monitor (GEM), China has 180GW of utility-scale solar and 159GW of wind power already under construction.
The total of the two is nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined, and enough to power all of South Korea, according to GEM.
The 339GW of utility-scale solar and wind that have reached the construction stage accounts for one-third of all proposed wind and solar capacity in China, far surpassing the global construction rate of just 7%, GEM’s latest Global Solar Power Tracker and Global Wind Power Tracker updates found.
China added almost twice as much utility-scale solar and wind power capacity in 2023 than in any other year.
By the first quarter of 2024, China’s total utility-scale solar and wind capacity reached 758GW, though data from China Electricity Council puts the total capacity, including distributed solar, at 1120 GW.
Wind and solar now account for 37% of the total power capacity in the country, an 8% increase from 2022, and widely expected to surpass coal capacity, which is 39% of the total right now, in 2024.
Between March 2023 and March 2024, China installed more solar than it had in the previous three years combined, and more than the rest of the world combined for 2023.
Solar capacity first surpassed wind in 2022, and the gap has grown significantly larger, thanks to the massive expansion of distributed solar. Nearly half of the distributed solar added in 2023 was installed on residential rooftops.
Distributed solar accounts for 41% of the total solar capacity and has experienced a higher growth rate than centralised solar since 2021.
Newly installed wind also doubled in growth over the 12 months year on year.
GEM’s Global Wind Power Tracker has documented a 51GW wind capacity increase since 2023.
The combined capacity at pre-construction and announced stages for utility-scale solar power reaches 387GW and 336GW for wind.
This includes the second and third waves of “mega wind & solar bases” with a combined capacity of approximately 503GW, which will come online between 2025 and 2030.
The first wave of “mega wind and solar bases” was announced in 2021 and spanned across 19 provinces.
Most of the 97GW in this first wave began operating in 2023 as scheduled, accounting for a third of China’s newly operating capacity, pointing to a promising future for the second and third waves.