24 April 2025 – China set several records for clean power generation in the first quarter of 2025, leaving Europe far behind. And can European steel still be saved? Is the lobby now demanding the nationalisation of steel mills?
Record growth in wind and solar energy in China
China set several records for clean electricity generation in the first quarter of 2025. The total generation of clean electricity reached the highest value ever measured for the first quarter.
In the first quarter, China added 72.2 GW of newly installed capacity. Solar power accounted for 59.6 GW of this, while wind and thermal power contributed 14.6 GW and 6.2 GW respectively.
With an installed solar power capacity of 946.3 GW in the first quarter of 2025, China remains at the forefront of the global energy transition.
According to the figures, solar energy was followed by wind energy with 535 GW, hydropower with 437 GW, nuclear energy with 60 GW and thermal power with 1,450 GW.
Analysts expect the Chinese market to continue to grow rapidly and the main export destinations to remain emerging countries willing to trade, which have accounted for over 90 per cent of export growth for solar and wind power products since 2021.
European Union not making progress on renewable energies
In comparison, the European Union, which likes to see itself as a pioneer in the green transformation, is lagging far behind in the development of renewable energies. Converted to the total population, the European Union lags behind China in the annual expansion of wind energy by around 12% and solar energy by 14%.
EU loses out on battery energy storage capacity
The EU is also not really making progress in the expansion of battery energy storage capacity (BESS). China had already installed 215.5 GWh of BESS in 2024, while the EU was only able to achieve just under 35 GWh of storage capacity.
State interference often the biggest problem in Europe
The bankruptcy of Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the hasty and ultimately secret location of Northvolt in northern Germany – for which the German government had assumed liability for a convertible bond of over 600 million euros despite warnings from the Ministry of Finance, among others – is an example of how EU member state Germany has slipped up in the energy transition.
In February 2025, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck told the German media that he was unaware of the problems of the Swedish parent company and the quality defects in battery production in Germany. He had also declared an expert report that revealed the battery manufacturer’s problems to be a secret matter.
Can European steel still be saved?
With a television debate on the European channel ARTE on the topic ‘Can European steel still be saved?’, the EU steel mills’ association EUROFER is currently drawing attention to possible challenges in European steel production.
Calls for nationalisation of European steel mills
One of the topics of the discussion is the possible nationalisation of European steel makers, using the example of the recently nationalised British Steel Scunthorpe mill. Trade union representatives in particular had argued in the panel discussion that nationalisation could become absolutely necessary due to the mismanagement of the large steel companies.
Nationalisation would mean a step backwards to communism or socialism. This would not enable progress or innovation, but would instead manifest the standstill in the steel industry. We therefore wonder whether EUROFER has really thought this through to the end and is now aiming to nationalise one of its largest individual members.
Should domestic steelworks actually come under state control, this would be a further serious blow to competitiveness in Europe and would cost taxpayers billions of euros unnecessarily.
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