@mhdksafa Quando dou comida aos pobres, chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres, chamam-me de comunista.
Dom Hélder Câmara,1909-1999
This is probably my favourite chart I've produced on China's electricity transition because it leaves nowhere to retreat except ideology.
It shows both the share of China's electricity generation (%) and the absolute electricity generated (TWh) by each major electricity sector.
The story is hard to miss:
• Fossil fuels fell from 80% to 58% of generation.
• Renewables rose from 19% to 38%.
• Nuclear grew from ~1% to just 4%.
But the real story, hidden in the table below the chart, makes everything even more remarkable.
China's total electricity generation exploded from 1,350 TWh in 2000 to 10,600 TWh in 2025 — an almost 8-fold increase in just 25 years, one of the largest and fastest electricity system expansions in human history.
Within that unprecedented growth:
• Wind generation grew from effectively zero to 1,166 TWh.
• Solar generation grew from effectively zero to 1,166 TWh.
• Hydro's share fell from 19% to 14%, yet hydro generation still increased nearly sixfold, from 257 TWh to 1,484 TWh.
• Renewables generated 4,028 TWh in 2025, compared with 424 TWh from nuclear.
China didn't abandon fossil fuels. It built the world's largest fossil electricity system, then built an even larger clean energy system around it.
The data here, quietly destroys two common narratives simultaneously:
❌ "China is building coal, therefore renewables don't matter."
❌ "China's transition is mostly nuclear."
Neither is true.
The dominant story of China's energy transition isn't coal. It isn't nuclear.
It's scale — and an energy buildout driven relentlessly by economics and cost.
Because in energy, as in most industries, cost wins. And the accountants always beat the ideologues.