Beyond coal: China’s installed solar power capacity crosses historic threshold

Solar power has overtaken coal as China’s largest source of installed power generation capacity for the first time, marking a landmark shift in the world’s largest energy market, according to government data.

By the end of July, China’s installed photovoltaic capacity had reached 1,286 gigawatts, accounting for 31.5 per cent of the total, the National Energy Administration (NEA) reported on Tuesday. The agency called the milestone a “signature achievement” in China’s green and low-carbon energy transition.

“For over a century, since the birth of China’s electric power industry, the historical pattern of coal power serving as the largest power source has been broken,” the NEA posted on its official WeChat account.

The infrastructure milestone comes on the heels of earlier official data showing that coal’s share of generated electricity dropped below 50 per cent for the first time during the first half of 2026.

By comparison, solar generation accounted for 13 per cent of total electricity consumption by the end of July. In the first seven months of the year, the country generated 802.4 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power, a 15.5 per cent year-on-year surge.

China now produces about 80 per cent of the world’s solar modules and has built what the NEA called the world’s “most complete and most competitive” photovoltaic industrial chain.

As large volumes of solar and wind capacity come online, China is also accelerating upgrades to its power grid, aiming to build what it describes as a “new-type power system” capable of integrating the growing share of renewable energy.