China Was Installing 100 Solar Panels a Second. It Was Also Building New Coal Plants at the Same Time.

BBC China correspondent Laura Bicker travels from Inner Mongolia to Yunnan to see the renewable buildout at ground level. She finds sheep grazing inside solar installations, panels shaped like a horse, and one of Asia's largest floating solar farms built over a collapsed coal mine in Anhui province. At peak pace, China was installing around 100 solar panels per second. Coal still accounts for roughly half of all Chinese energy production and emissions were only beginning to flatten by the end of 2025. The government leads with energy security and jobs; clean air is the bonus.