Overview

• Shashi Tharoor praised China for installing 256 GW of solar capacity in the first half of 2025, more than the rest of the world combined.
• He urged an aggressive Indian rollout, suggesting a global power grid and proposing large solar projects from the Thar Desert to the Deccan Plateau.
• Xinhua-reported figures show China’s wind and photovoltaic capacity reached 1.482 billion kilowatts by end-March 2025, exceeding thermal capacity for the first time.
• In the first quarter of 2025, wind and solar generated 536.4 billion kWh, accounting for 22.5% of China’s electricity use, up 4.3 percentage points year on year.
• By end-2024, total renewable capacity in China stood at about 1.41 billion kilowatts, over 40% of installed power capacity, with wind capacity up sixfold and solar more than 180 times since 2013.