The monthly renewable energy dispatch meeting of the National Energy Administration in July 2026 was officially held, and a set of key data clearly outlined a new milestone in China's energy transformation. The proportion of renewable energy installed capacity has exceeded 60%, and the scale of wind and solar power installed capacity has caught up with coal-fired power generation, marking that China's renewable energy development has entered a new stage of high-quality development.

Achieving historic breakthroughs in core indicators

In the first half of 2026, the installed capacity of renewable energy power generation in China reached 2.455 billion kilowatts, accounting for 60.7% of the total installed capacity of electricity in the country. Among them, the installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power generation was about 1.95 billion kilowatts, accounting for nearly half of the total installed capacity. The installed capacity of solar power generation has basically reached the same level as coal-fired power generation. During the same period, renewable energy added 117 million kilowatts of installed capacity, accounting for 73.9% of all new installed capacity. The total power generation reached 1.96 trillion kilowatt hours, accounting for 41.2% of the country's total power generation. The total wind and solar power generation was 1.25 trillion kilowatt hours, accounting for 24.6% of the total electricity consumption in society.

The dual value of ensuring supply and transformation continues to be highlighted, and renewable energy has grown from a supplementary energy source in the past to a core main power source supporting the stable operation of the national power system.

Three aspects of deployment anchor the next stage of development

The meeting clarified three core work directions for the next stage. Firstly, we will make every effort to promote the implementation of the 15th Five Year Plan for the new energy system. At the local level, we will do a good job in policy coordination and target decomposition to ensure the smooth progress of major projects. Secondly, we will take multiple measures to expand the consumption of green electricity, implement the responsibility weight system for consumption, jointly formulate regional consumption plans with multiple departments, and take into account multiple modes such as the main channel consumption of the large power grid, direct connection of green electricity, and source grid load storage. We will scientifically set targets for the utilization rate of new energy. Finally, we will accelerate the development and construction of various new energy projects, fully promote the development of wind and solar power bases, and simultaneously cover diverse scenarios such as offshore wind power and distributed new energy, in order to promote the early start of projects and form physical workloads. Keywords: renewable energy, new energy installed capacity

From less than 30% of installed capacity to over 60%, domestic renewable energy has completed the decades long transformation journey of developed countries in just a few years.Editor/Cheng Liting