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Clean energy technologies generated a record 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share of the mix down to 53% despite growing demand for power, according to a new analysis published in Carbon Brief.
Coal-fired power output shrank nearly 4% from a year before and the dirtiest fossil fuel’s share of the mix fell 7 percentage points, reaching a historic low, Lauri Myllyvirta of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) wrote. Gas generation, meanwhile, slumped 16%.
Conversely, solar output surged 78% and hydro generation rebounded 39% following last year’s drought. Wind production was up 5%.
This was more than enough to offset the 7.2% increase in China’s electricity demand, leading to a 3.6% drop in carbon emissions from the power sector, according to Myllyvirta.
Solar’s share of the electricity mix rose to 12%, up from 7% a year earlier, while wind accounted for 11% of output, hydropower 15%, nuclear 5%, and biomass 2%.
The combined share of wind and solar has more than tripled in eight years, from 7% in May 2016 to 23% in May 2024.
In the first five months of 2024, China added another 79GW of solar and 20GW of wind capacity. The rapid build-out of clean energy capacity “reinforces the view that China’s carbon emissions are in a period of structural decline,” Myllyvirta said.
China’s cumulative wind and solar capacity is expected to reach 1,200GW by the end of July 2024, some six years ahead of target, according to Climate Energy Finance, an Australian think-tank.
