China's solar power capacity set to overtake coal in Q3

China's solar power capacity is on track to officially surpass coal-fired capacity in the third quarter of this year, driven by an explosive surge in demand from high-end manufacturing, artificial intelligence and electric vehicle infrastructure.

According to a comprehensive mid-year report released by the China Electricity Council (CEC), by the end of May, China's total installed power generation capacity had reached 4.01 billion kilowatts (4.01 terawatts), making it the first country globally to cross the 4-billion-kilowatt threshold.

By the end of June, total solar power capacity had caught up with coal, effectively tying it as the country's largest primary power source. New energy sources have now firmly established themselves as the undisputed main body of newly added power capacity, according to the CEC.

"In the first half of the year, total non-fossil energy power generation grew by 8.5 percent year-on-year, accounting for 44.5 percent of total power generation — an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the same period last year," said Hou Wenjie, director of the statistics and data intelligence department at the CEC.

"More remarkably, the incremental growth of non-fossil energy power generation accounted for 70.7 percent of the total incremental power generation nationwide."

Traditional fossil fuels are seeing their dominance wane. Coal-fired power generation accounted for 49.7 percent of total power generation in the first half of the year, dropping below the 50 percent mark for the first time in China's modern industrial history, Hou said.