Correction: August power consumption was the all-time record for that month; July had the highest demand to date for any month.

Yes! Thanks for pointing that out.

The increase in China's August solar and wind power generation from 2025 to 2026 was equal to Germany's total power consumption during the month.

The increase in China's August solar and wind power generation from 2025 to 2026 was equal to Germany's total power consumption during the month.

The wedge between power demand growth and fossil power generation growth, 6%-points, driven by clean power generation growth, is exactly what we'd want to see if power sector emissions are to keep going down also during times of faster demand growth.

The fall in residential power demand is explained by significantly lower cooling needs than in 2025. If residential demand was growing on trend, say 5%, total power demand growth would have been 3.4%. That's still a significant slowdown from 5%+ in recent years.

The implied 16% increase in wind and solar generation in August is close to the 16% increase in solar and 20% increase in wind power capacity compared with the same time last year, indicating that the problem of wasted wind and solar eased.

Wind and solar made up 26% of total power generation in August, up from 23% last year, and the total clean (non-fossil) share was 44%, up from 42% last year.

When we attribute the "missing" generation to solar and wind, we find that solar and wind generation in August was around 280 TWh, instead of the reported 140 TWh. And the year-on-year increase was 37 TWh instead of the reported 12 TWh.

The exclusion of so much solar and wind leads to under-reporting of total generation as well: the generation dataset shows 94 TWh in August, while reported power consumption was 103 TWh, implying around 108 TWh of generation given transmission losses.

China's industrial output statistics heavily under-report solar, and the growth of both wind and solar due to the inclusion criterion, which is a minimum threshold for annual turnover, excluding both small installations and installations owned by recently created companies.

Official data showed an 8TWh increase in generation from hydro and nuclear, and 12TWh from solar and wind, enough to cover demand growth, but not drive fossil generation down by 4%, or 27TWh. ACTUAL increase from solar and wind, as calculated from official data, was about 37TWh.

Electricity consumption grew just 1.7% overall, with 2.7% in industry, 5% in services and -4% in the residential sector. But that was still an all-time high for electricity consumed in one month by any country, ever, with an increase of 17 TWh from last year.

Why did China's coal&gas power output fall 4% in August? Three reasons: power generation from wind and solar grew much more than reported, as always; industrial power demand growth slowed down; and milder temperatures drove a drop in residential demand. How to parse the data 👇

NEW from us: EU's CO2 fell 2% in H1 2026, behind the pace needed to meet 2030 targets, with a rise in gas-fired generation and insufficient clean energy growth driving up power sector emissions. Emission trends also show the need to electrify transport, buildings and industry.

LNG imports fell sharply in China, South Korea, Japan and Belgium, acting as a hub for the EU. Russia's LNG imports rose with the EU ban on long-term contracts only taking effect at the turn of the year and Ukraine not targeting LNG exports (yet?), unlike oil.

Striking how India, Thailand, Malaysia, Portugal and Colombia increased LNG imports despite the price shock, showing what a vulnerability reliance on LNG is.

China has been dominant in balancing the oil market, with Japan, South Korea and Singapore also cutting imports sharply in relative terms. India reduced imports in Q3, after import rose but consumption fell in Q2.

How have the oil and gas markets balanced with exports from the Gulf restricted? In Q3, the increases in oil exports from the U.S. fizzled out, leaving even more of the shortfall to be absorbed by lower imports. For LNG, its a mix of both but also some striking jumps in imports.