China completes and activates massive solar farm in the Gobi Desert
The first of many solar and wind projects in China’s deserts is now online, and it’s capable of powering a staggering 1.5 million households.
China
This archive gathers solutions-journalism stories and milestones from China — covering advances in clean energy, public health, technology, conservation, and more. Each entry highlights progress worth knowing about.
World’s largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density
“The launch of condensed batteries will usher in an era of universal electrification of sea, land and air transportation…,” according to Chinese battery manufacturer CATL.
10% of global car sales were electric in 2022 for first time ever
Electric vehicles crossed a quiet but enormous threshold in 2022, making up one in every ten new cars sold worldwide for the first time. Roughly 7.8 million fully electric vehicles found buyers that year, even as overall car sales slipped. China led the charge, with EVs accounting for nearly a fifth of new cars sold there, while Europe wasn’t far behind at 11%. Behind the numbers is a deeper shift: battery prices have fallen dramatically over the past decade, and major automakers are doubling their EV output even as their broader sales decline. Ten percent is the moment a technology stops being niche and starts reshaping an industry — a hopeful signal for the global push toward cleaner transport.
China turns on the world’s largest and most efficient compressed air energy storage plant
Clean energy storage just took a major leap forward, and it happened without a single fossil fuel involved. China’s new compressed air facility in Zhangjiakou runs entirely on thermodynamic processes, storing up to 400 MWh and operating at 70.4% efficiency — well above the 40–52% typical of existing systems. That’s enough to supply more than 132 GWh to the local grid annually, while avoiding roughly 109,000 tons of CO₂ each year. Proving that utility-scale, non-lithium storage can work commercially gives the global clean energy transition a powerful new tool to build on.
Chinese company gets airworthiness certificate for groundbreaking bio jet fuel made of cooking oil
Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, bio jet fuel can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50% throughout the entire lifecycle.
Chinese company Longi launching groundbreaking space-based solar panels
Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest solar technology manufacturer, will send panels into space as the first step in plans to test the feasibility of harnessing the sun’s power in orbit and transmitting it back to Earth.
China’s CO2 emissions fall by record 8% in second quarter of 2022
China’s emissions have now fallen year-on-year for four consecutive quarters, extending what was already the longest sustained decline in recent history.
China builds world-first full-function space solar verification tower
Space solar power just cleared a milestone that researchers once thought was still years away. China’s test tower at Xidian University is the first facility anywhere to run the complete chain — concentrating sunlight, converting it to electricity, and beaming that power wirelessly to a ground receiver — all in one integrated system, completed roughly three years ahead of schedule. It’s a research milestone, not a power plant, but proving the full system works in one place gives scientists a permanent platform to push the technology forward.
China announces planting of Belgium-sized forests and expanded national parks
14,000 square-miles of new forest will go up every year, particularly in drought-prone regions of the North and West.
China’s first clinic for transgender children and adolescents set up in Shanghai
Experts expect that the clinic will serve as a bridge between transgender children, parents, doctors and the various circles of society.