China builds more renewables per month than the nuclear target they’ve very slowly expanded over a half decade and aren’t scheduled to reach until at least 2030. 70% of China’s electric generating capacity will be renewables by 2027. You could replace current global nuclear generating capacity at parity with capacity factor with batteries and solar in under two years.

Lazard Levelized Cost of Energy+ 2026 - https://www.lazard.com/media/kcfconhf/lazards-lcoeplus_vf.pd... [pdf]

> Renewables Remain Lowest Cost New-Build Generation; All Generation Faces Increasing Cost Pressure: Despite rising and inflationary cost pressures across all generation technologies, renewables remain the most cost-competitive form of new-build generation on an unsubsidized basis and will account for the majority of near-term capacity additions in the U.S. Continuous upward revisions to demand projections have driven a sharp increase in announced new-build gas generation despite a 15-year high LCOE, which is expected to continue to rise, and historically long development and equipment delivery timelines.

China Keeps Beating Renewable Targets And Missing Nuclear Ones - https://cleantechnica.com/2026/07/25/china-renewable-targets... - July 25th, 2026

> China set a 2020 wind target of 210 GW and finished the year with about 282 GW. Its solar target was 110 GW, while delivery reached roughly 253 GW. The later commitment to reach at least 1,200 GW of combined wind and solar by 2030 was crossed in 2024, six years early. By the end of 2025, China had about 640 GW of wind and 1,202 GW of solar, for a combined 1,842 GW. Nuclear moved in the other direction: about 50 GW against a 58 GW target in 2020, and about 62 GW against a 70 GW target in 2025. The current goal of 110 GW by 2030 may still be achieved, but the previous record gives no reason to convert it directly into a forecast.

> This is not evidence that Beijing has quietly abandoned nuclear power. China has the world’s largest reactor construction programme, continues approving new units and is building an increasingly domestic supply chain around designs such as Hualong One. The divergence lies between approval and operation. Another difference is that when renewables blow past targets China set much bigger targets, but when nuclear misses targets, the targets don’t change. That difference is harder to explain than the results.

China builds more new coal power to combine with renewables than any country in the world. With all implications for air quality, but the new coal development is concetrated away from most big cities, so air quality is slowly getting better in big cities.

"Operating coal power capacity in China has increased 44% since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015."

"1,270 GW operating coal power capacity"

"533 GW coal power capacity"

https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-coal-plant-t...

" Many of China's renewables-rich regions are also major coal-producing areas. While renewable development creates opportunities for economic diversification and industrial transformation, it can also provide a new rationale for expanding coal-based industries. The coal-to-chemicals sector illustrates this risk.

According to new GEM research, all coal-to-olefins projects currently under construction in China’s northwestern and northern regions include planned associated green hydrogen facilities, as regulators increasingly require renewable integration as a condition for project approval. However, in many cases, the renewable component represents only a small fraction of overall energy use."

https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/chinas-wind-and-sol...

China currently builds cheapest possible energy system based on renewables backed by coal power instead of expensive energy system based on nuclear energy.

China is using their coal plants as peakers until battery storage has ramped to replace them. Coal use has already dropped below 50%. They are building the largest hydro project in the world (60GW, Motuo / Yarlung Tsangpo project) in the Himalayas, with a 2k meter drop that will create more pressure than a nuclear driven steam turbine.

Ember Energy: China - https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ - Last Updated: May 28th, 2026

> China is rebuilding its industrial economy on a clean foundation as rapid renewable energy expansions begin to offload fossil fuels

> Hydropower remains China’s largest single source of clean electricity, contributing 13% in 2025. The share of wind and solar combined reached 22%, above the global and Asia average of 17%. Solar recorded another year of exponential growth, with 336 TWh of power generation, a 40% increase compared to 2024.

> The biggest shift in China’s electricity generation in 2025 was an absolute decline in coal generation. Coal output decreased by 71 TWh, the first such drop since 2015. Fossil fuels provided 58% of China’s electricity in 2025, down from about 62% in 2024.

> China could reach peak fossil fuel consumption by 2030, thanks to exponential renewables growth and electrification. In 2025, China’s fossil generation declined by 56 TWh (-0.9%), the first year without an increase since 2015. This represents a structural shift, and if current trends hold, China’s fossil fuel demand could begin falling soon, creating conditions for global fossil fuel demand to decline as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medog_Hydropower_Station

China’s energy storage market doubles in size for second consecutive year as price inflection point emerges - https://www.energy-storage.news/chinas-energy-storage-market... - August 18th, 2026

China Crosses Energy Milestone as Coal Falls Below 50% of Power - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49110187 - July 2026

Ember Energy: From scale to system: navigating the next phase of China’s battery storage - https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/from-scale-to-syste... - July 16th, 2026

China Battery Storage Use Surges After Policy Shift, Ember Energy Says - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-15/china-bat... | https://archive.today/QBXxV - July 15th, 2026