China is building more power capacity than everyone else combined

Claim types Fact

Sum of unit capacity with GEM status 'construction', all types (solar, wind, hydropower, coal, oil/gas, nuclear, bioenergy, geothermal), minus units with technology 'pumped storage' (storage, not generation). World 1,731,927 MW minus 188,987 MW pumped storage = 1,542,940 MW. China 982,332 MW minus 168,351 MW pumped storage = 813,981 MW; all other countries 728,959 MW. India 202,311 minus 11,950 = 190,361 MW; United States 93,706 MW (no pumped storage under construction). With pumped storage included China leads 982 GW to 750 GW. GEM tracks utility-scale units above size thresholds that vary by type (rooftop solar excluded). Country sums by progrss from the unit-level file. Capacity, not plant counts: by number of units China is building fewer than the rest of the world. Solar capacity mixes AC and DC ratings as reported by GEM. Thresholds: coal, geothermal and bioenergy 30 MW+, oil/gas 50 MW+ (20 MW in the EU and UK), hydro 75 MW+, solar 20 MW+ (10 MW in Arabic-speaking countries), wind 10 MW+, nuclear all sizes. Data are open-access; cited as GEM recommends: "Global Integrated Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, September 2026 release."

Published 3 Nov 2026