The World's Largest Renewable Energy Projects
Former U.S. President Joe Biden is facing a worsening health situation after his son Hunter Biden said the cancer has spread to his bones and described the disease as "very painful" and "very debilitating."
China's Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydro installation at 22.5 GW, remains unmatched. Its owner is now developing a 16 GW complex in the Kubuqi Desert, featuring 8 GW solar, 4 GW wind, and 4 GW upgraded coal to meet peak demand.
Other record holders are just as striking. The Xinjiang solar farm, operational since June 2024, boasts a 5 GW capacity, spans 810 square kilometres, and generates 6.09 billion kWh annually. Dubai's solar park aims for 5,000 MW by 2030 over 77 square kilometres.
Are mega projects the reason China leads the renewable race?
They help, but the bigger story is sheer volume. By the end of June 2026, China's renewable capacity had reached 2.455 TW, or 60.7 percent of its total installed capacity, and it added 117 GW in the first half of the year. Solar alone stood at 1.274 TW.
Experts say building is only half the task. Lauri Myllyvirta of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air notes that record renewable additions will help replace fossil generation, but warns that China's large coal and gas additions "risk creating new obstacles to clean energy".
Is building more capacity enough?
Not on its own, which is why storage is becoming part of every big project. China's new energy storage has reached 168.3 GW and 448.7 GWh, and the 1.7 GW Tiantai pumped-storage station entered full operation in June 2026. The lesson from these giantsis that size is no longer the headline, because the real test is whether the power can be stored, moved and used.
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