The most comprehensive and transparent analysis of China’s role in the global energy transition shows a significant shift to renewables compared to the past decade, dominated by mega solar projects in Asia and Africa, but varying to include niche areas like biomass in some places
Scale of China’s renewables activities overseas
Thenew study, analysing over 500 Chinese renewable energy projects from October 2022 to June 2025, by the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) in collaboration with IDS, follows China’s 2021 pledge to stop building overseas coal plants. It provides a vital understanding of the scale, geography, and business models of China’s renewables activities overseas, as countries race to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Wei Shen, Research Fellow, IDS and co-author of the study, said:
“Information on Chinese overseas renewable energy projects is often fragmented and inconsistent, making it difficult to track their recent developments. Therefore, this new research marks an important step in identifying China’s role in the global transition from fossil fuels, and potential areas for engagement between China and other countries to achieve climate goals – particularly across Asia, Africa, and the wider Global South.”
“China’s pivot to renewables demonstrates a contribution towards the global climate target set at COP28 to triple global renewable energy capacity to at least 11,000 GW by 2030. But its impact could also extend beyond climate goals, as scaling renewable energy investments can also help address development challenges such as energy security and energy poverty.”
The findings show that the overall number of solar and wind projects is much larger than the previous decade (compared with findings from a previous evidence review in 2020) and that the greatest number of Chinese renewable energy projects since 2022 were in Asia (354), followed by Africa (126 projects) and Europe (42 projects). In terms of type of energy project, solar was by far the largest in terms of number of projects and energy generation, followed by wind and hydropower.
The high number of solar projects reflects China’s advantages in solar photovoltaic production, as the country now dominates every major stage of the solar PV supply chain. That has also driven down costs, making Solar PV the cheapest renewable energy option in many countries
Mega projects concentrated in Northern Africa
In Africa, the study reveals that China’s largest ‘mega projects’ are concentrated in Northern Africa, due to advantages including land availability. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the distribution of renewable energy projects is evenly distributed across East, West and Southern Africa, but on a smaller scale due to the smaller demand for electricity, plus sovereign credit and debt constraints limiting the scale of what China view as bankable projects in many SSA markets.
The top 10 countries with the greatest number of Chinese renewable energy projects, accounted for 50 per cent of the total number of projects globally, reflecting China’s focus on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. Uzbekistan had the most projects, followed by the Philippines and Saudia Arabia. The researchers highlight that Uzbekistan has the highest number of Chinese renewable energy projects because it serves as a central hub for China’s energy strategy in Central Asia and serves as a unique case where both political and commercial interests meet.
The study also looked at the make-up of China’s renewable projects across least development countries and higher income countries. It showed that solar projects were not as dominant in least-developed countries, with hydro power coming a close second
The research is published in the policy brief The Landscape of Chinese Renewable Energy Investment Overseas (2022–2025) and the (Chinese Overseas Renewable Energy) CORE database. It includes Chinese project activities in solar photovoltaic power, wind power, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, and waste heat utilisation; integrated energy systems; and energy storage facilities
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