From the desert expanses of the northern Gansu province to the mountains of Yunnan in the south, passing through hills dotted with former coal mines in Shanxi and the salt marshes around the Bohai Gulf, China has been blanketing its landscapes with solar panels at a pace that defies imagination. Photovoltaic power facilities have now become a familiar sight across the countryside, as have wind turbines. While China remains by far the largest global greenhouse gas emitter, it holds a unique position due to its efforts in energy transition.

In 2024, about 55% of the solar panels installed worldwide were set up in China, and, in just five months, from January to May, 198 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels were deployed across the country – only slightly less than the cumulative total solar energy capacity installed in the United States (239 GW). China has thereby surpassed 1,000 GW of installed solar panels, though it has struggled to match that pace in connecting them to its power grid, all while the European Union had just reached a total of 338 GW of solar energy by the end of 2024.

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