China poised to hit clean power target five years early

China is reportedly on track to almost double its wind and solar power capacity and shatter the central government’s ambitious 2030 goal of 1,200 gigawatts way ahead of schedule.

‘China is making strides,’ says Martin Weil, a researcher at Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

The NGO, which tracks operating utility-scale wind and solar farms in the country, has just released a report uncovering that if all prospective projects are successfully built and commissioned, it’s well on its way to hitting its clean power targets five years earlier than originally planned.

As it explains, China is set to double its capacity and produce 1,200 gigawatts of energy through wind and solar power by 2025, bolstering its position as the global leader in renewables.

The findings are in line with previous analyses and recent government data, which predicted that China could easily surpass its goal of supplying a third of its power consumption through renewable sources by 2030.

According to GEM’s breakdown, as of the first quarter of 2023, China’s utility-scale solar capacity (with installations concentrated in the country’s north-west provinces, such as Shanxi, Xinjiang and Hebei) has reached 228 gigawatts, which is more than the rest of the world combined.

The group also identified solar farms under construction that could add another 379 gigawatts in prospective capacity, triple that of the United States and nearly double that of Europe – and that China has made significant progress in wind capacity.

This is as a result of its combined onshore and offshore capacity, which now surpasses 310 gigawatts, double its 2017 level and roughly equivalent to the top seven countries combined.

With new projects in Xinjiang, Gansu, and along coastal areas, China is on track to add another 371GW before 2025, increasing the global wind fleet by nearly half.