As Chinese people, we have not felt the threat of power outages for a long time—whether for industrial or household electricity. But in recent years, during the Russia-Ukraine war and the US-Israel-Iran conflicts, the whole world has faced energy shortages. Yet China still provides stable and cheap electricity to people across 9.6 million square kilometers, and it is hard for us to intuitively grasp the scale of China's growth in power generation.

This chart clearly shows the scale of China's annual新增 electricity—in 2025 alone, China's power generation grew by nearly 500terawatt-hours(TWh), and Germany's total power generation for all of 2025 was close to exactly that figure. This means that in just one year, China added a Germany-sized power grid to its own electricity system.

Even more striking is that almost all of the新增 generation came from solar and wind. Solar power generation alone increased by 340 TWh year on year, a figure exceeding the combined total power generation from all energy sources in the UK and Spain for the entire year.

While low-carbon energy grew substantially, China's thermal power generation actually declined slightly.

China has also recently completed the world's largestoffshore photovoltaic power stationequipped with 2.3 million solar panels, 2,934 steel structural platforms, and 11,736 subsea pile foundations, capable of withstanding Level 11 gales and sea ice. The station is about 8 kilometers from the coast and can supply power to 2.67 million people.

Large-scale nuclear power deployment

China is advancing nuclear power construction at a speed unmatched anywhere in the world, with the capacity to build 50 nuclear reactors simultaneously. The aim is to strengthen energy security and reduce carbon emissions. Industry data show that China currently has 60 nuclear reactors in operation and connected to the grid, and 36 under construction, accounting for more than half of all nuclear reactors under construction worldwide.

Officials expect seven more nuclear reactors to be connected to the grid by the end of 2026, further consolidating China's position at the core of global nuclear power expansion.

The rapid implementation is due to a highly standardized reactor construction model: China uses mature standardized reactor designs, integrates a complete domestic industrial chain, and relies on strong state support to effectively shorten construction periods and reduce costs.

Analysts point out that China has turned nuclear power construction into an industrialized mass-production model, with multiple projects able to proceed simultaneously in different provinces.

The nuclear expansion is an important part of China's energy strategy: on the one hand, it reduces dependence on coal and diversifies the energy mix; on the other, it meets the growing electricity demand from industry, data centers, and electric vehicles. Alongside the large-scale development of renewable energy, nuclear power will continue to provide stable baseload electricity.

Source: Huanqiu International Horizons