China's coal-fired power output share falls below 50 pct for first time in H1

Coal-fired power accounted for 49.7 percent of China's total electricity output in the first half of 2026, marking the first time its share has fallen below 50 percent and a new milestone in the country's transition toward a green and low-carbon energy system, official data showed on Thursday.

During the January-June period, China's coal-fired power generation totaled 2.5 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), the National Energy Administration (NEA) disclosed at a press conference.

The figures reflect the phased progress China has made in expanding non-fossil energy as a substitute for conventional fossil fuel generation, Xing Yiteng, an NEA official, said at the press conference.

The NEA data showed that China's installed capacity of wind and solar power reached a combined 1.95 billion kilowatts by the end of June, up 16.8 percent from a year earlier.

Amid this capacity expansion, electricity generation from renewable energy maintained steady growth in the first half of the year, reaching nearly 2 trillion kWh and up about 9 percent year on year, the data showed.

Renewable energy accounted for 41.2 percent of the country's total electricity generation during the period, exceeding the combined electricity consumption of the tertiary industry and urban and rural households, according to the NEA.

The latest figures underscore the accelerating pace of China's green and low-carbon energy transition, as the country continues to expand renewable energy capacity while reducing its reliance on coal.

China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. ■