research firm, predicts that China will add more than 150GW of new solar capacity in 2023, almost double the 87GW installed in 2022, and that by the end of the year, China's cumulative solar capacity will exceed 500GW.
The 500GW milestone is a huge achievement in just 13 years — it accounts for about 40% of the world's installed solar capacity. By comparison, the cumulative installed PV capacity in Australia is about 30GW, while that in the United States is about 145GW.
But Rystad Energy says it won't take nearly 13 years for China to install its next 500 GW solar project , but more likely three years .
According to its forecast, it is expected that 165 GW of new photovoltaic capacity will be added in 2024 and 170 GW in 2025. China's cumulative solar power generation will be close to 900 GW by the end of 2025 and will exceed 1 TW by the end of 2026. Shocking
as that number is, it's not entirely surprising, given China's dominance of the global solar supply chain and its easy access to plentiful and cheap panels. China's national solar capacity building program, launched in June 2021, has also given a big boost to large-scale projects, said Zhu Yicong, senior renewable energy and power analyst
at Rystad Energy.
As part of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China has also set targets for solar installation in 26 provinces in its renewable energy plan.
Rystad Energy said it aims to add 443 GW of new capacity by the end of 2025. As of June 30 this year, the installation volume has reached half, with 206 GW installed.
But it is distributed solar, especially commercial and industrial rooftops in China, that is really driving the economic growth of this vast country.
"While most distributed PV systems are installed on rooftops, not all of them are used for residential purposes," Zhu said.
"About two-thirds of China's distributed PV capacity is utilized by the commercial and industrial sectors, and the capacity of these projects ranges from tens of megawatts to more than 100 megawatts."
To this end, we have also invested a lot of money. Investment in solar PV construction in the first half of 2023 was 134.9 billion yuan ( $15.8 billion), Rystad Energy reported, citing China's National Energy Administration (NEA).
According to Rsytad, this is 3.4 times the investment in thermal power in the same period, the highest among all power generation sources.
At the same time, China is busy supplying the vast majority of solar equipment installed by the rest of the world.
Just this week, European module manufacturers called for policy and monetary support for the EU solar industry to give it a chance to survive in the face of an "unsustainable low price" import wave from China. In a letter to the Commission
, SolarPower Europe said: "EU manufacturers are now faced with a choice: continue to halt production and face bankruptcy, or seek refuge in regions such as the United States that support their photovoltaic industry ."
浙公网安备33010802003254号