Is China really leading the clean energy revolution? Not exactly | Li Shuo

The country generates more solar energy than all other countries combined, but burns half the planet's coal. There are lessons here for the rest of us, though

Big numbers are a hallmark of China's economy and now its energy transition: they thrill, they mystify, and at times they contradict, at least on the surface.

China's solar capacity is now 228 gigawatts (GW), more than the rest of the world combined, according to Global Energy Monitor. And wind capacity, at a whopping 310GW, also leads the world. With another 750GW of new wind and solar projects in the pipeline, China will hit its 2030 target of 1,200GW - an unimaginable number when proposed just a few years ago - five years early.