China’s renewable energy additions surged to 172 GW during the first nine months (9M) of 2023, ending September, a 93% increase from the same period last year, according to the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA).

As per the NEA, renewable energy installations accounted for 76% of China’s total newly added installed generation capacity during the period.

Further, by the end of September, China’s total installed renewable energy capacity touched 1,380 GW, exceeding that of coal-fired power. Renewable energy sources accounted for 49.6% of the country’s overall installed power generation capacity.

Of the total installed capacity, hydropower accounted for 419 GW, wind 400 GW, solar 521 GW and biomass 43 GW, according to Wang Dapeng, Deputy Director of the Department of New and Renewable Energy.

With the aim of achieving carbon neutrality, China has accelerated the construction of large-scale wind power and solar projects, the NEA said.

China has set a massive target of adding 160 GW of solar and wind energy capacity in 2023, up 13.5% from the actual installations in 2022. It aims to raise the proportion of wind and solar power in total electricity consumption to 15.3% from 13.8% last year and the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 18.3% from 17.4% in 2022.

In 2022, China installed 87.41 GW of solar capacity. Although this was a 60.3% increase from 2021, the country failed to achieve its projected target of 108 GW of solar installation. At the end of 2022, its cumulative solar installations touched 393 GW, while the wind capacity stood at 70 GW.

However, in the second quarter of the current financial year, China managed to add 44.8 GW of solar capacity, which pushed the country’s cumulative solar installations to 471 GW. According to the NEA, this was a whopping 153% year-over-year growth.