China's solar capacity reached 1,274 GW at the end of June, within one gigawatt of coal

Chinese authorities said on Friday, 31 July 2026, that the country's installed solar generation capacity could overtake coal fired capacity soon, possibly as early as this quarter. According to the China Electricity Council's (CEC) mid year report, as carried by local media, solar capacity stood at 1,274 gigawatts at the end of June 2026, just one gigawatt below total installed coal capacity of 1,275 gigawatts.

The report says that by the end of June, total solar capacity had caught up with coal, effectively tying it as the country's largest primary power source. Hou Wenjie, director of the statistics and data intelligence department at the CEC, said non fossil power generation grew 8.5% year on year in the first half of 2026 and accounted for 70.7% of the country's total incremental power generation.

Official Chinese data earlier this week showed the share of coal in the country's electricity output averaged 49.7% in the first half of 2026, falling below 50% for the first time on record. According to National Energy Administration data, renewable generation rose about 9% over the same period and its share reached 41.2%, with wind and solar together supplying almost 25% of total power output. China is the world's largest oil importer, and the composition of its energy mix is one of the long term variables in global oil and coal demand.