In 2025, China used 10,368.2 billion kWh of electricity.

What does 10 trillion kilowatt-hours mean? Let’s put it this way: the 27 EU countries plus Russia, Japan, and India—these big players combined—don’t consume as much electricity in a year as China does. The United States is a major electricity consumer, but this number is more than twice its total.
I used to think such astronomical figures were far from everyday life, but upon closer reflection, the most hardcore part isn’t the volume, but who is using this electricity.
Over the past few decades, whenever electricity consumption soared, the first reaction was always factory machines roaring, sparks flying. Indeed, the secondary industry still accounts for over 60%, but you need to look at the growth.
This year, industrial electricity use is still rising, but the momentum has stabilized. Instead, the combined electricity consumption of the tertiary industry and residential life has contributed half of the growth.
This indicates that the “backbone” of the economy is changing.
Especially within the tertiary industry, the electricity consumption growth rate of charging and swapping services is astonishing, approaching 50%. Now, charging stations are everywhere, “drinking” electricity. The widespread adoption of new energy vehicles has directly rewritten the structure of electricity consumption.
Another data point: the growth rate of electricity use in information technology services is also double digits.
Everyone is now working on artificial intelligence and large models. These seem high-tech, but they are actually “electric tigers.” Data center servers consume more electricity than steelmaking furnaces when running. A significant portion of this 10 trillion kWh is eaten up by these invisible data flows.
In the future, whoever controls cheap and stable electricity will have the upper hand in the AI competition. That’s why in the western deserts, photovoltaic panels are laid out like seas—just to lower computing power costs.
This leads to another issue: generating electricity is easy, transmitting it is hard.
Wind and solar power are “moody,” dependent on the weather. In the past, coal was burned to generate as much as needed; now, it depends on the sky.
To handle this 10 trillion kWh, the country is investing more in energy storage and grid dispatching than in power generation itself. Ultra-high-voltage transmission technology instantly delivers wind and solar energy from the northwest to office buildings in the east. The technical difficulty here is actually higher than building several nuclear power plants.
Currently, China is the only country capable of mastering this system; no other has such a comprehensive setup.
Although agriculture’s total electricity consumption isn’t large, its growth rate is rapid. Farming no longer relies on physical labor; temperature control and automatic irrigation in greenhouses are all electrically controlled. This effectively turns agriculture into “open-air factories,” which is a major trend.
Ultimately, these 10 trillion kilowatt-hours are not just impressive numbers. They also signify a complete transformation in economic development models and lifestyles.
10 trillion is a dream for other countries, but for China, it’s just the beginning.