China has been adding something like a 1GW coal plant’s worth of solar generation every eight hours in the past year, and the rate is accelerating. The US is no longer a serious competitor for China when it comes to energy production.
The reason it happened in 2021, I think, might be that China took on the production capacity gap caused by COVID shutdowns in other parts of the world. The short-term surge in production led to a temporary imbalance in the supply and demand of electricity
This was very surprising to me, so I just fact-check this statement (using Kimi K2 thinking, natch), and it's presently is off by a factor of 2 - 4. In 2024 China installed 277 GW solar, so 0.25 GW / 8 hours. First half of 2025 they installed 210 GW, so 0.39 GW / 8 hours.
Not quite at 1 GW / 8 hrs, but approaching that figure rapidly!
(I'm not sure where the coal plant comes in - really, those numbers should be derated relative to a coal plant, which can run 24/7)
> (I'm not sure where the coal plant comes in - really, those numbers should be derated relative to a coal plant, which can run 24/7)
It works both ways: you have to derate the coal plant somewhat due to the transmission losses, whereas with a lot of solar power being generated and consumed on/in the same building the losses are practically nil.
Also, pricing for new solar with battery is below the price of building a new coal plant and dropping, it's approaching the point where it's economical to demolish existing coal plants and replace them with solar.
China has been adding something like a 1GW coal plant’s worth of solar generation every eight hours in the past year, and the rate is accelerating. The US is no longer a serious competitor for China when it comes to energy production.