Science Magazine has named the renewable energy surge its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year, pointing to a set of inflection points where wind and solar outpaced conventional power growth.
Citing data from energy think tank Ember, Science Magazine says renewables surpassed coal as a source of electricity worldwide, and solar + wind growth from January to June 2026 was large enough to cover the entire increase in global electricity use over that period.
In September 2025, President Xi Jinping told the UN that China aims to cut carbon emissions by up to 10% over the next decade, largely by accelerating wind and solar.
China can do this because the country now dominates supply: it produces roughly 80% of the world’s solar cells, and about 70% of wind turbines and 70% of lithium batteries, helping push renewables into an industry worth more than 10% of China’s economy.
On deployment, it cites China’s solar generation rising more than 20-fold over the past decade, and claims China’s combined solar and wind farm capacity is now large enough to power the entire United States.
Export spillovers are showing up in the Global South: Pakistan’s imports of Chinese solar panels rose fivefold from 2022 to 2024, while turbine sizes are scaling too, with units cited up to 300 metres tall.
The growth is indeed spectacular: 1 GW of solar installed globally in a full year in 2004 - with today’s pace of roughly 2 GW coming online each day.
→ Dive deeper into China's manufacturing power, explore our infographic China Manufacturing 2026: The Velocity of Density
