China's power supply structure is undergoing a profound transformation. The long-term time series data on installed power generation capacity from the latest China Statistical Yearbook 2026, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, documents the evolution of the country's power source landscape from 2000 to 2025: over the 25-year period, the nation's total installed capacity expanded dramatically, with thermal power long serving as the stabilizing anchor for supply security; wind and solar (photovoltaic) power started from almost nothing and achieved explosive growth, while hydropower and nuclear power expanded in an orderly manner, bringing an end to thermal power's "single dominance" and forming a new pattern of diversified clean energy sources developing in coordination.
Solar power claims the top spot
According to data compiled from the yearbook, China's total installed power generation capacity stood at 319.32 million kilowatts in 2000, with the power mix heavily dependent on thermal power. That year, thermal power accounted for 237.54 million kilowatts, an absolute majority; hydropower stood at 79.35 million kilowatts; nuclear power at only 2.1 million kilowatts; wind power at a mere 340,000 kilowatts; and solar power capacity was still zero, with the new energy segment of clean energy barely having taken off.
By 2025, the national installed power generation capacity reached 3,896.64 million kilowatts, an increase of more than 11-fold compared with 2000. The internal structure of power sources has undergone subversive changes. Among them, solar power generation is the most astonishing growth segment: in 2000, domestic solar power capacity was virtually blank, and it was not until 2009 that the China Statistical Yearbook 2026 tables first recorded 30,000 kilowatts, while by 2025 solar capacity had reached 1,202.05 million kilowatts. Calculated from 2009 as the statistical starting point, that represents a 40,068-fold increase in just 16 years; even counting from 260,000 kilowatts in 2010, it still grew more than 4,600-fold by 2025, the highest growth rate among all power source types. The continuous deployment of distributed photovoltaics and large-scale wind and solar bases has propelled photovoltaics to leapfrog into becoming China's second-largest power source.
According to data from the National Energy Administration, as of the end of July 2026, the country's total installed solar power generation capacity reached 1.286 billion kilowatts, surpassing coal power (1.285 billion kilowatts) for the first time, accounting for 31.5% of the nation's total installed power generation capacity. Photo by reporter Lin Chunting. At 1.286 billion kilowatts, this is equivalent to the combined installed capacity of 57 Three Gorges Hydropower Stations. This figure ranks first among all single countries globally, far exceeding the United States, India, Germany and other countries, and also higher than the combined solar installed capacity of all European Union member states.
At present, China has formed the world's most complete and most competitive photovoltaic industry chain. Module manufacturing technologies are flourishing on multiple fronts, crystalline silicon cell conversion efficiency leads the world, and research and development of next-generation technologies such as perovskite cells is accelerating. China's photovoltaic module output accounts for about 80% of the global total.
Wind power has likewise achieved leapfrog development. In 2000, the nation's installed wind power capacity was only 340,000 kilowatts, reaching 639.62 million kilowatts in 2025, a roughly 1,880-fold increase over 25 years. From early scattered demonstration projects to large onshore bases and contiguous offshore wind development, wind power has become one of the core pillars of clean electricity supply.
As a mature clean power source, hydropower has maintained steady and sustained growth. Installed hydropower capacity was 79.35 million kilowatts in 2000 and reached 448.32 million kilowatts in 2025, an increase of about 4.6-fold over 25 years. Relying on hydropower development in river basins such as the Yangtze, Jinsha and Lancang rivers, hydropower has long played an important role in system regulation.
Nuclear power has expanded steadily and in an orderly manner. Installed nuclear capacity was 2.1 million kilowatts in 2000 and 62.52 million kilowatts in 2025, an increase of about 28.8-fold over 25 years. As a stable, low-carbon baseload power source, nuclear power is being deployed in a steady manner.
New energy now occupies half the landscape
The scale of thermal power capacity is still increasing, but its role has undergone a fundamental shift. Thermal power capacity was 237.54 million kilowatts in 2000 and 1,544.08 million kilowatts in 2025, an increase of about 5.5-fold over 25 years. Unlike its earlier role as the main source of incremental growth, thermal power is now gradually shifting toward becoming a supporting power source for system regulation and supply-security fallback, providing peak-shaving support for the fluctuating output of wind and solar new energy.
In terms of installed capacity share, the trend of structural change is clear at a glance: in 2000, thermal power accounted for more than 70% of total installed capacity; by 2025, combined wind and solar power installed capacity reached 1,841.67 million kilowatts, with wind and solar accounting for close to 47% of the nation's total installed capacity, meaning clean new energy's weight in China's power source landscape has approached half.
This set of long-cycle 25-year installed capacity data intuitively presents the trajectory of China's energy transition on the ground. In the first decade of this century, electricity increments mainly relied on thermal and hydropower to meet the power demand of rapid industrialization; over the past decade or so, wind and solar power have become the absolute mainstay of new installed capacity, and the pace of energy transition has clearly accelerated. Photo by reporter Lin Chunting.
The dramatic changes in the power source structure have also brought new issues for power system operation and market mechanism development. Wind and solar power generation is intermittent and volatile, and the large-scale grid integration of new energy places higher demands on cross-provincial transmission corridors, energy storage supporting facilities, electricity spot markets and ancillary services markets. This is also the underlying logic behind the accelerated implementation and operation of the national unified electricity market and the Southern Regional Electricity Market — matching the fluctuations in wind and solar output through market-based means and optimizing the mutual exchange of power resources within and across provinces, so that new energy can be generated, transmitted and used.
On October 24, 2026, the reporter learned from the Southern Regional Electricity Market's transition to formal operation and high-quality development promotion meeting held in Guangzhou that on that day, the Southern Regional Electricity Market, China's first regional electricity market, shifted from trial operation to formal operation. The market covers the five provinces and regions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, with hydropower, thermal power, new energy and other types of power sources bidding on the same platform, enabling flexible mutual power exchange between provinces, marking a major breakthrough in the construction of the national unified electricity market system.
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