How much electricity (TWh) did Chinese wind farms generate in 2024 and 2025?
Executive summary
Public reporting and think‑tank briefings confirm China’s wind fleet produced record monthly and quarterly volumes in 2024–25, but none of the supplied sources publishes a single, authoritative annual TWh total for wind alone for calendar years 2024 and 2025; precise annual figures cannot be stated from the material provided [1] [2] [3]. What is verifiable: wind output hit unprecedented monthly highs in 2024 and combined wind+solar output reached very large quarterly totals in early 2025, enabling reasoned bounds and trends rather than an exact TWh tally [1] [3].
1. Storm‑level month: the one hard datapoint for 2024
Energy think‑tank Ember’s data, cited by Reuters, records that China’s wind farms produced “over 100 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in March” 2024 — a single‑month, country‑level record that is presented as larger than the monthly production of entire continents [1]. That fact provides a concrete benchmark: at least one month of 2024 exceeded 100 TWh, showing wind’s capacity to contribute very large absolute volumes when conditions and dispatch allow [1].
2. Wind sits inside a fast‑rising renewables bloc, complicating wind‑only arithmetic
Multiple sources report wind alongside solar as the dominant driver of China’s clean generation growth: Ember and others say wind and solar together supplied roughly 18% of China’s electricity in 2024 and that combined wind+solar generation rose sharply year‑on‑year [2]. Official figures cited for early 2025 show wind+photovoltaics produced 536.4 billion kilowatt‑hours (536.4 TWh) in the first quarter of 2025 — but that number combines two technologies and thus does not isolate wind [3]. Using combined totals to infer wind‑only TWh requires assumptions about the solar share by month and season, which the supplied sources do not provide [2] [3].
3. Trends point up: 2025 generation higher but wind share blurred by solar surge
Reporting through mid‑2025 documents vigorous additions of both wind and solar capacity (for example, 46 GW of wind added by May 2025 and very large solar builds), and Ember data show wind generation in H1 2025 was about 16% higher than in H1 2024 — again a trend signal rather than an exact annual total [4] [2] [5]. The major caveat: solar growth in 2024–25 was especially strong and seasonal, so increases in combined wind+solar generation in 2025 do not translate cleanly into equivalent percentage rises in wind alone [2] [6].
4. What can reasonably be concluded from the available evidence
From the supplied reporting it is defensible to conclude that: (a) China’s wind farms produced at least one month in 2024 that exceeded 100 TWh (March 2024) [1]; (b) wind was a major — and growing — component of China’s power mix through 2024–25, with combined wind+solar accounting for roughly 18% of electricity in 2024 and producing 536.4 TWh in Q1 2025 [2] [3]; and (c) wind generation rose further into 2025 versus 2024, but exact annual wind‑only TWh figures for 2024 and 2025 are not published in the materials provided [2] [3]. Any single‑number claim for full‑year wind generation in 2024 or 2025 would therefore require external data not included in these sources.
5. Why some public narratives overreach — and where to look next
Some commentary treats combined wind+solar milestones or monthly records as if they were annual wind totals, an implicit agenda that amplifies the scale of wind alone; sources such as Reuters and Ember are careful to distinguish their monthly or combined figures, but secondary outlets sometimes conflate them [1] [7]. For a definitive annual wind TWh figure, the most reliable next steps are to consult Ember’s full annual datasets or the Chinese National Energy Administration’s annual generation statistics, neither of which are included among the supplied materials [1] [3]. The supplied reporting nevertheless makes one policy point unmistakable: China’s wind fleet moved from niche to central status in 2024–25 and delivered record volumes that materially reshaped the country’s electricity mix [1] [2].