China's green electricity hits one-third of total consumption

Wind and solar capacity grew 28% annually, driving China's energy transition acceleration.

China’s green electricity accounted for one-third of its total electricity consumption during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

According to the government, China’s green electricity is generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass power.

Between 2021 and 2025, the installed capacity of renewable power generation increased from 40% to around 60%, with wind and photovoltaic power playing a central role in this energy transition, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Li Chuangjun, director of the new energy and renewable energy department of the NEA, said that the total installed capacity of wind and solar power in China has increased from 530 million kilowatts in 2020 to 1.68 billion kilowatts by the end of July 2025, marking an average annual growth rate of 28%.

The proportion of wind and photovoltaic power generation in total electricity consumption increased from 9.7% in 2020 to 18.6% in 2024, with an average annual growth of over 2 percentage points.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China took the lead globally in terms of new energy and other related technological equipment, with new energy patents accounting for over 40% worldwide.

By the first half of this year, China's new-type energy storage capacity had reached around 95 million kilowatts, marking nearly a 30-fold increase over five years and ranking first globally.

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), Yang Kun, executive vice chairman of the China Electricity Council, said that efforts should focus on ensuring the reasonable utilisation rates of both newly-built and existing renewable energy power generation projects.

At the same time, diversified renewable energy non-electric application scenarios should be expanded, including green hydrogen production and renewable heating, whilst accelerating innovative breakthroughs in integration technologies.