China is consolidating its position as a global leader in renewable energy: almost two-thirds of new solar and wind capacity built in 2024 worldwide will be located in China, according to a study published Thursday.
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With thousands of solar panels already covering the Gobi Desert in northern China and wind farms stretching endlessly across the neighbouring Gansu region, Beijing is doubling, if not tripling, its efforts to go green. Here’s a figure to illustrate this: almost two-thirds of the new solar and wind capacity built worldwide in 2024 is located in China. According to the count by the US organisation Global Energy Monitor, published on Thursday 11 July, Beijing will add 340 gigawatts of electricity capacity produced by wind and solar power in 2024 alone. That’s as much as the total capacity built for solar energy in all of Europe to date.
If China is making this shift, it is first and foremost because it needs ever more energy. China has 1.4 billion inhabitants and industries that export all over the world. And even if the Chinese economy has suffered a slowdown linked to the health crisis, it is maintaining strong growth: +5% in 2023. It therefore remains very greedy for electrons. Moreover, there is such an appetite that China has been developing renewables, but also other types of energy such as nuclear over the last five years: eleven additional gigawatts over this period is more than all the other countries in the world combined. Then, China can afford this shift towards renewables because it has champions in this field. The key sectors are dominated by Chinese companies (solar panels and lithium batteries). So there is both know-how and economies of scale.
Historically, the Chinese economy is very dependent on fossil fuels, oil, gas, but also and especially coal. It still represents 60% of the Chinese energy mix today, according to the International Energy Agency. Hence a double challenge, first of public health to try to dispel the thick fogs of pollution that reign over Chinese cities, but also a political challenge.
China has announced the goal of stabilizing its CO2 emissions by 2030, in six years, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. This is to demonstrate its ability to lead this transition. Renewable energies allow both to increase the country’s energy independence and to present itself politically as one of the major global players in the face of climate change challenges.