In 2025, solar power had its biggest year ever, and one country was behind most of it. China alone added 336 terawatt-hours (TWh) of new solar power, which is more than every other region in the world put together. This single number shows just how fast China's clean energy push is moving, and how much it is shaping the world's overall energy mix. According to Ember's Global Electricity Review 2026, this rapid solar growth in China, along with strong gains in India, helped push global solar power to its highest level ever recorded. The numbers also point to a bigger shift: for the first time in a century, the world's electricity now comes more from renewables than from coal.
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China's solar power boom in 2025: 336 TWh added in a single year
China's solar generation jumped by 40% in 2025, reaching a total of 336 TWh for the year. To understand how big this number really is, it helps to compare it with something familiar. China's new solar power alone was more than the entire amount of electricity used by the United Kingdom in 2025, which stood at 322 TWh. According to Ember's country data on China , solar and wind together now make up 22% of China's electricity mix, higher than both the global average and the average for Asia as a whole. This was not a one-off jump either. Solar power in China has been growing at an exponential pace for several years in a row now, and 2025 was simply its biggest year yet.
How China's solar growth compares to the rest of the world
When you look at solar additions by region, the gap between China and everyone else becomes very clear. Outside China, the rest of the world added about 300 TWh of new solar power in total. Asia (excluding China) added around 90 TWh, North America added about 86 TWh, and Europe added close to 80 TWh. Latin America and the Caribbean added 24 TWh, the Middle East added 10 TWh, Oceania added 6 TWh, and Africa added just 4 TWh. Put simply, China's solar additions alone were bigger than the next three regions combined. This means that more than half of all new solar power added anywhere in the world in 2025 came from a single country.
