China closes 2025 with record renewable growth, confirming its global leadership in clean power and energy storage.
Renewables and energy storage drive China’s power system growth
Renewables and energy storage in China delivered another historic milestone in 2025. Fueled by the rush to secure the final feed-in tariff incentives and by the targets set in the latest five-year plan, the country ended the year with sharply rising figures, reinforcing its dominant role in global energy markets.
According to data released by the National Energy Administration, new wind and solar capacity added in 2025 exceeded 430 GW. This pushed cumulative installed capacity beyond 1.8 TW, including around 1.2 TW of solar alone. For comparison, China’s total power generation capacity now stands at 3.89 TW.
The annual result is only part of the picture. The 2025 milestone reflects an unprecedented four-year trajectory, during which annual renewable additions successively crossed the thresholds of 100, 200, 300 and finally 400 GW.
Renewables now account for over 60% of China’s power mix
As a result of this acceleration, renewables now account for more than 60% of China’s national capacity mix. The figure was highlighted with particular emphasis by the NEA, which framed the achievement as a signal of structural change in the global energy balance.
“On the generation side, electricity production from renewable energy sources reached around 4,000 TWh,” said Xing Yiteng, deputy director of the Development Planning Department. “This level exceeds the total electricity demand of the 27 EU member states, estimated at about 3,800 TWh.”
China’s transition is driven by multiple factors, many of them economic in nature. Beyond the growing recognition that a fossil-fuel-based development model has reached its limits, the government’s objective of building an “ecological civilization” also aims to reduce dependence on imported fuels, lower energy costs, stimulate growth and employment, and open new export markets.
The scale, speed and depth of China’s transition are increasingly raising questions about the future of fossil-based power generation at the global level. For more than a decade, the country has acted as the main swing factor for worldwide gas and coal demand. The combined expansion of renewables and the electrification of final energy consumption is now expected to translate into a tangible decline in the global fossil share.
A look ahead to China’s renewables by 2035
Looking ahead, industry analysts expect China’s renewable electricity capacity to continue expanding at record levels, with the ambition of reaching 3.6 TW of combined solar and wind capacity by 2035. Growth rates are likely to slow compared with the recent past, particularly now that feed-in tariffs have been replaced by contracts for difference.
Policy focus is shifting toward system integration rather than unchecked capacity expansion, supported by accelerated investments in grid infrastructure. These investments are set to remain central under the 15th five-year plan for 2026–2030, scheduled for release in March 2026.
Energy storage in China in 2025
Renewables are not the only pillar of China’s energy transformation. National plans for energy storage in China also delivered strong results in 2025. Beyond a series of headline records, including the world’s largest compressed air energy storage facility and the most powerful flow battery, the sector continues to scale rapidly.
New energy storage capacity increased by 84% compared with the end of 2024, reaching 351 GWh in operation and a cumulative power capacity of 136 GW. This represents an increase of more than forty times compared with levels recorded at the end of the 13th five-year plan period.
The administration also reported that average storage duration reached 2.58 hours, up by 0.30 hours year on year.
“At the level of individual plants, a clear trend is emerging toward large-scale projects with capacities of 100 MW or more. By the end of 2025, projects of at least 100 MW accounted for 72% of total installed capacity, around 10 percentage points higher than at the end of 2024. In addition, new projects with durations of four hours or more are gradually increasing, representing 27.6% of total installed capacity, about 12 percentage points higher than at the end of 2024.”
