China will have more installed solar power capacity than coal-fired generation capacity as early as this quarter, Chinese authorities have said.<\/p>\n
As of the end of June, solar power capacity stood at 1,274 gigawatts (GW), just below the total coal-fired installed capacity of 1,275 GW.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of June, total solar power capacity had caught up with coal, effectively tying it as the country’s largest primary power source,\u201d says the mid-year report released by the China Electricity Council (CEC) cited by local media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Renewable energy sources have become the leading driver of new power capacity additions, the report by the CEC said, as carried by China Daily.<\/p>\n In the first half of 2026, China’s total non-fossil energy power generation grew by 8.5% from a year earlier, said Hou Wenjie, director of the statistics and data intelligence department at the CEC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe incremental growth of non-fossil energy power generation accounted for 70.7 percent of the total incremental power generation nationwide,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n Official Chinese data showed earlier this week that the share of coal in China’s electricity output fell in the first half of 2026 to below 50%<\/a> for the first time on record, in a landmark achievement of the Chinese policy to boost non-fossil power sources.<\/p>\n The share of coal averaged 49.7% of China’s total electricity output in the first half of this year, official data showed<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n As the share of coal slipped, electricity generation from renewable energy rose by about 9% from a year earlier, according to the data from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA).<\/p>\n Renewable energy accounted for 41.2% of China’s total electricity generation in the first half of 2026, with wind and solar combined generating almost 25% of the total power output.<\/p>\n Despite the milestone of reducing coal power output to below 50% of total generation for the first time ever, China continues to rely on coal<\/a> for power for industry and to maintain the reliability of the power grids.<\/p>\n By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n