China noticed monumental photo voltaic and wind progress in 2024, in response to information launched right now by its Nationwide Vitality Administration (NEA).
China’s put in capability shot up by 14.6% final yr, now surpassing 3,348 gigawatts (GW).
Photo voltaic noticed the largest leap, with a record-breaking 45.2% improve (+277 GW), attaining 887 GW total. Wind energy additionally noticed strong progress, climbing 18% (+80 GW) to nearly 521 GW.
In 2020, President Xi Jinping set a purpose of no less than 1,200 GW of photo voltaic and wind capability by 2030. China met that focus on final yr – practically six years forward of schedule – in response to NEA information from August.
The nation has additionally constructed practically twice as a lot wind and photo voltaic as each different nation mixed.
Hydropower rose 3.2% to just about 436 GW, and nuclear ticked up 6.9% to succeed in near 61 GW. In the meantime, thermal capability grew by 3.8% to over 1,444 GW. (The NEA doesn’t break down what powers the thermal capability, however my educated guess is generally fossil fuels.)
On the technology facet, China, the world’s largest electrical energy producer, produced 9,418 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electrical energy in 2024 – a 4.6% improve in comparison with the yr earlier than. Breaking it down, thermal energy technology was up 1.5%, hydropower and wind each grew by 11%, and photo voltaic led the pack once more with an enormous 28% enhance. Electrical energy consumption additionally noticed vital progress, leaping 6.8% to 9,852 TWh in 2024.
China is way forward of everybody else with renewable vitality installations, however coal nonetheless performs an enormous position within the nation’s vitality combine. That mentioned, there are indicators it is perhaps beginning to kick its coal behavior. Coal energy permits dropped by an enormous 83% in H1 2024 in comparison with H1 2023, and no new coal-based steelmaking tasks had been permitted throughout that point.
Electrek’s Take
No. 1 polluter, China, was already far forward of the No. 2 polluter, the US, within the transition to renewables. However with Donald Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Settlement (becoming a member of simply Iran, Libya, and Yemen) once more, halting wind mission allowing and leasing, and issuing a sequence of silly government orders favoring fossil fuels and placing obstacles within the profitable renewable sector’s means, it seems to be like China is poised to depart the US even additional within the mud.
Learn extra: The US’s largest offshore wind farm is on finances and on time
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