Solar surpassed coal as China’s top source of power for the first time ever, underscoring the country’s remarkable rollout of green energy as it looks to contain the impact of the Iran war. Solar accounted for almost a third of total installed capacity at the end of July, up from virtually nothing just a decade ago.
The world’s largest oil importer has ploughed into renewables at an unprecedented scale, expanding overall power generation and boosting energy-intensive industries like AI. The Iran war has proved that Beijing’s long-term energy strategy was prescient, an expert argued: “China’s dependence on imported oil remains substantial, but the geopolitics of energy are shifting,” a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies wrote.
