China generates less than half of its electricity from coal for the first time
BEIJING — China, the world’s largest coal consumer, generated less than 50% of its electricity from the fossil fuel in the six months to June, marking a first for the country which has been promoting the use of renewable energy, officials said.
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Coal’s share of the power mix was 49.7%, Xing Yiteng, deputy director general of the energy administration’s development and planning office, told a news conference on Thursday.
Renewable energy’s share grew to 41.2% — the first time it topped 40% — and of that wind and solar accounted for 24.6%, Xing added. Natural gas and nuclear make up the balance.
Despite coal’s shrinking share, analysts say that China might still use more this year than last as power demand rapidly climbs. More Chinese are switching to electric cars, data centers for AI are being built out and exports continue to grow. Planners have set a deadline for coal consumption to peak no later than 2030.
China’s targets call for increasing wind and solar to 30% of its power mix by 2030, but Gao Yuhe, Greenpeace East Asia’s project manager, says that goal could be hit by 2028, helped by more rooftop solar-plus-battery deployment.
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“Storage, together with demand response and more flexible electricity markets, will enable much higher penetration of distributed solar and help meet growing electricity demand with renewable energy rather than fossil fuels,” she said.
China’s coal power share is much higher than some other large economies in part because it has abundant coal reserves and comparatively little natural gas. For example, coal made up just 17% of U.S. utility-scale power generation in 2025 while 41% was from natural gas.
However, China’s coal dependence is lower than coal-rich India, where coal and lignite accounted for 69% of power generation last year.
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