China is rewriting the rules of global energy at a breathtaking pace. In May 2025 alone, the country installed 93 gigawatts of solar capacity—nearly 100 panels per second—and 26 gigawatts of wind power, equivalent to one turbine every 10 minutes. Between January and May, China added 198 gigawatts of solar capacity, a 388% increase over the same period in 2024, along with 46 gigawatts of wind power.
“We knew China’s rush to install solar and wind was going to be wild but WOW,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. The scale is staggering: May’s installations alone will generate as much electricity as entire countries like Poland, Sweden, or Norway. By March 2025, China’s wind and solar capacity surpassed thermal power for the first time in history. In May, China saw its carbon emissions decline for the first time, potentially signalling peak emissions years ahead of the country’s 2030 target. The transformation demonstrates what’s possible when clean energy costs plummet and industrial capacity scales rapidly.
Read the full story: China breaks more records with surge in solar and wind power
Photo by Wenying Yuan on Unsplash
