China's Solar Capacity Tops Coal for First Time

Overview

• China’s National Energy Administration reported in late July that installed solar photovoltaic capacity reached about 1,286–1,288 GW, just above the country’s roughly 1,285 GW of coal capacity.
• Installed capacity now favors solar even though coal remained the largest source of electricity in the first half of 2026, supplying about 49.7% of generation while wind and solar together produced roughly 24.6%.
• Solar output has risen sharply year on year, with generation in the first seven months climbing about 15.5% to roughly 802.4 billion kWh, equal to about one in eight kilowatt-hours made in China.
• New solar builds moderated in 2026 after Beijing shifted from fixed feed-in tariffs to market-based pricing, a policy change that altered developer economics and slowed installation rates this year.
• China makes about 80% of the world’s PV modules and expects more than 2 trillion yuan in solar investment over the next five years, a scale that keeps capacity growing even as the system needs more storage and grid flexibility to cut coal generation.