(Yicai) Jan. 29 -- China’s combined installed capacity of wind and solar power has exceeded 1,800 gigawatts for the first time last year, as its gap with thermal power, whose primary sources are fossil fuels, continues to expand.

China’s wind and solar power installed capacity totaled 1,840 GW at the end of 2025, according to data released by the National Energy Administration yesterday. Among that, the installed capacity of solar power surged 35 percent to 1,200 GW, and that of wind power climbed 23 percent to 640 GW from a year earlier, making them the fastest-growing power types in the country.

As of Dec. 31, the proportion of wind and solar power installed capacity to the total had increased to just over 47 percent.

Wind and solar power surpassed thermal power in terms of installed capacity for the first time ever in the first quarter of last year. As of March. 31, 2025, China’s installed capacity of wind and solar power was 1,482 GW, while that of thermal power was 1,451 GW.

The gap has continuously widened since then, reaching about 300 GW as of Dec. 31, when China’s installed capacity of thermal power was 1,539 GW, data from the NEA also showed.

China’s installed capacity of wind and solar power has been on the rise over the past years. The country added 120 GW of wind and solar power in 2022, 290 GW in 2023, 360 GW in 2024, and 434 GW last year, of which about 119 GW of wind power and 315 GW of solar power, according to NEA data.

China has been the largest global market for wind and solar power for many years, having built the world’s most complete industrial chain layout. Its output and exports of products such as photovoltaic modules, wind turbines, and inverters all rank first globally.

Over the past decade, China has helped reduce the average cost per kilowatt-hour of global wind power projects and PV power generation projects by 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione