China built a total of 543 GW in new power generation capacity last year, which was more than any other country, with coal and wind capacity at record high, government data released today, and quoted by Bloomberg, showed.
The total power capacity additions in China since 2021 exceed the size of the entire U.S. grid, Bloomberg noted in its report. The U.S. grid has a total generation capacity of over 1,000 GW.
“The build-out remains very strong, with super robust numbers going from record to record,” Michal Meidan, the head of China energy research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told the publication. “The priority is security of supply, and not just that, but the availability of competitively priced energy.”
The Chinese government has signaled repeatedly that while non-hydrocarbon generation capacity was a priority, it would follow an all-of-the-above approach to energy, which explains the massive increase in coal power plant construction. Still, wind and solar capacity has grown to represent 47.3% of China’s energy mix, the data from the National Energy Administration showed.
Solar additions in 2025 jumped by 35.4% to reach 1.2 billion kW, and wind power additions rose by 22.9% to 640 million kW. Total generation capacity booked a 16.1% annual increase last year, the National Energy Administration reported, adding that wind and solar alone hit 430 million kW in new capacity additions.
Despite the massive growth in wind and solar, China is doubling down on coal as well. Earlier this month, data by net-zero non-profit Global Energy Monitor showed that China was set to commission as many as 85 coal-fired power generating units this year, out of a total global of 104 coal projects slated for start-up in 2026. That number represents a capacity of 55 GW. In 2025, 78% of new coal power plants globally were launched in China.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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