Photos Show the Vast Scale of China’s Solar Power Projects

kottke.org July 16, 2025 By Jason Kottke

a crane lifts a huge solar panel into place on a lake

overhead view of a solar farm surrounded by water

Over at the Atlantic, Alan Taylor has collected a bunch of photos showing just how hard China is pushing on solar energy.

As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide.

74% of all construction projects worldwide! This pairs well with Bill McKibben’s recent article for the New Yorker, 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment.

People are now putting up a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels, the rough equivalent of the power generated by one coal-fired plant, every fifteen hours. Solar power is now growing faster than any power source in history, and it is closely followed by wind power — which is really another form of energy from the sun, since it is differential heating of the earth that produces the wind that turns the turbines.

Tags: Alan Taylor · Bill McKibben · China · energy · photography

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

a crane lifts a huge solar panel into place on a lake

overhead view of a solar farm surrounded by water

Over at the Atlantic, Alan Taylor has collected a bunch of photos showing just how hard China is pushing on solar energy.

As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide.

74% of all construction projects worldwide! This pairs well with Bill McKibben’s recent article for the New Yorker, 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment.

People are now putting up a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels, the rough equivalent of the power generated by one coal-fired plant, every fifteen hours. Solar power is now growing faster than any power source in history, and it is closely followed by wind power — which is really another form of energy from the sun, since it is differential heating of the earth that produces the wind that turns the turbines.

Tags: Alan Taylor · Bill McKibben · China · energy · photography

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

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