China has unveiled its renewable energy development plan for 2026-2030, establishing ambitious targets for expanding clean power generation while addressing reliability concerns. The plan calls for installing 3,500 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030, with wind and solar accounting for 2,800GW of that total. This represents a significant increase from China’s previous 2030 goal of 1,200GW of wind and solar capacity, which the country achieved six years ahead of schedule. As of June 2026, China had already installed nearly 2,000GW of wind and solar capacity alongside 454GW of hydropower.
The plan emphasizes not only expanding renewable energy capacity but also ensuring that wind and solar generation becomes more reliable and grid-friendly. Officials have indicated that development is entering a new phase where improving quality and dependability will be equally important as expanding scale. The strategy includes establishing large-scale clean-energy bases in northern regions to generate power for transmission to other areas via ultra-high voltage transmission lines, while also encouraging greater local consumption of distributed renewable energy. Hydropower capacity is expected to grow from 448GW in 2025 to 570GW by 2030, with 160GW coming from pumped-storage systems.
Generation targets in the plan specify that renewable electricity production should reach 6,000 terawatt-hours by 2030, with 4,000TWh derived from wind and solar. This would constitute a 50 percent increase from the approximately 4,000TWh generated in 2025. Total renewable energy consumption is projected to reach 1.8 billion tonnes of coal equivalent by 2030, up from 1.2 billion tonnes in 2025. The plan also promotes non-power applications of renewable energy in industrial sectors including steel and chemicals production. Meeting these targets would require China to install roughly 160GW of wind and solar annually and approximately 220GW of total renewable capacity each year.
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