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China is the world's largest market for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. Since 2013 China has been the world's leading installer of solar photovoltaics (PV). In 2015, China became the world's largest producer of photovoltaic power, narrowly surpassing Germany. In 2017 China was the first country to pass 100 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity, and by the end of 2018, it had 174 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity. As of May 2018, China holds the record for largest operational solar project in its 1,547-MW project at Tengger. The contribution to the total electric energy production remains modest as the average capacity factor of solar power plants is relatively low at 17% on average. Of the 6,412 TWh electricity produced in China in 2017, 118.2 TWh was generated by solar power, equivalent to 1.84% of total electricity production. The goal for 2050 is to reach 1,300 GW of solar capacity. If this goal is to be reached it would be the source with the largest installed capacity in China.

Solar water heating is also extensively implemented, with a total installed capacity of 290 GWth at the end of 2014, representing about 70% of world's total installed solar thermal capacity.

History

According to plans unveiled by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2007, China's installed solar capacity was to grow to 1,800 MW by 2020. However already in 2009, Wang Zhongying, a Commission official, mentioned at a solar energy conference in Shanghai that the plan might be exceeded several-fold, with the installed capacity possibly reaching as much as 10 GW by 2020.

In 2010 a new feed-in tariff was introduced. Projects completed before September 30, 2012 received 1.15 yuan ($0.18) per kWh. Since then, solar power deployment vastly exceeded initial government plans. The 200 MW Huanghe Hydropower Golmud Solar Park was completed in 2011, the world's largest solar farm at the time. There were many other solar farms in Golmud, totaling 570 MW at the end of 2011, with another 500 MW expected in 2012. The Qinghai province, which contains Golmud, was leading China in solar installations.

The Chinese PV production system faced severe external shocks since 2010. A sharp recession in the global demand due to institutional alterations in the German market in 2010, followed by anti-dumping duties and anti-subsidy countervailing duties on Chinese PV products enforced in both USA and EU. Chinese PV manufacturers, who were already running on their full capacity, faced difficult situation in 2011 and 2012 with huge financial loses that even led to bankruptcy of some important actors, such as SunTech Power in 2013 being defaulted on $541 million of convertible bonds. To rescue the huge PV industry with its large labor market and assets, a comprehensive set of policies were introduced by the Chinese government mainly to stimulate the domestic market. Accordingly, the annual installed capacity in China has experienced a notable growth since 2011. This growth was mainly due to the construction of several PV power plants around the country.

In May 2011, the National People's Congress (NPC) revised the solar target again, setting 5 GW as an official minimum PV target for 2015, with a longer-term target of 20–30 GW by 2020. According to a 2012 forecast by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, the total installed capacity was predicted to reach between 47 GW and 66 GW by 2017.

In May 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that the solar capacity target had been upped again, now to 70 GW by 2017. In October 2014 China planned to install 100 GW of solar power—along with 200 GW of wind, 350 GW of hydro and 58 GW of nuclear power by 2020. Market research firm NPD Group forecasted that China will have over 100 GW of PV capacity by 2018. In October 2015, China's National Energy Administration (NEA) set an ambitious 23.1 GW target for 2015, upgrading its previous target of 17.8 GW from March 2015, which was already more than the entire global PV capacity installed in 2010. At that time, China planned to install 150 GW of solar power by 2020, an increase of 50 GW compared to the 2020-target announced in October 2014.

The goal set by the Chinese authorities of 105 GW solar capacity for the year 2020 was passed in July 2017. China installed 43 GW of solar power in the first nine months of 2017, already above the 34.5 GW for all of the year. This has caused the Chinese Government to more than double the original quota to 213 GW for the 2020. CCB International Securities Ltd. raised its forecast for China’s solar power capacity to 55 gigawatts from 40 gigawatts for 2018. Of the 6,412 TWh electricity produced in China in 2017, 118.2 TWh was generated by solar power, equivalent to 1.84% of total electricity production.

Solar resources

A July 2019 report found that local air pollution (black carbon and sulfur dioxide) has decreased the available solar energy that can be harnessed today by up to 15% compared to the 1960s.

Solar photovoltaics

Solar PV by province

A large part of the solar power capacity installed in China is in form of large PV power plants in the west part of the country, much less populated than the eastern part but with better solar resources and available land.

Solar PV by type

In 2018 23,300 MW of utility scale power plant installations were added bring the cumulative total in this sector to 123,730 MW of power. Distributed installations rose by almost as much during 2018 at 20,960 MW bringing the cumulative total in the sector to 51,250 MW by year end 2018. Off-grid solar was the smallest component in 2018 with just 360 MW cumulatively installed.

Manufacturers

China has been the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels since 2008 and, since 2011, has produced the majority of global photovoltaics on an annualized basis. Industry projections estimated that, by the end of 2017, China would have enough manufacturing capacity to produce 51 GW of PV modules per year, an amount over twice as large as 2010's global production of 24 GW.

The industry is dominated by several major manufacturers. They include CHINT Group Corporation, JA Solar Holdings, Jinniu Energy, Suntech Power, Yingli, China Sunergy and Hanwha SolarOne. Large debt challenges several manufacturers.

Concentrated solar power

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2016)

China has large potential for concentrated solar power (CSP), especially in the south-western part of the country. The highest daily mean values of direct normal radiation are found in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Sichuan Basin, at 9 kWh/m2. Most of northern and western China has daily average direct normal radiation over 5 kWh/m2, considered the limit for economical use of CSP. Practical limitations for deployment of CSP include mountainous terrain and distance from energy load centers, mostly concentrated in the east.

The 12th five-year plan, for 2011 to 2015, called for the installation of 1,000 MW by 2015, and 3,000 MW of CSP plants by 2020. However, at the end of 2014, only 14 MW of CSP were operational in the country.

Plants either being planned or under construction:

• 1 MW Badaling Pilot Project — collaboration between the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
• 12 MW (short term) / 300-MW (long term) project — collaboration between Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemicals (Group) Co. and Guodian Xinjiang Company
• 50 MW project in Tibet by Huaneng Tibet Company
• 100 MW project in Sichuan Abazhou by Tianwei New Energy (Aba)
• 50 MW (TBD) by China Huadian Corporation
• 100 MW project in Golmud by GD ENERGY
• 100 MW project in Ningxia by Beijing Control Technology Co. Ltd
• 100 MW project (TBD) by Avic Xi’an Aero-Engine (Group) Ltd
• 100 MW project (TBD) by Guangdong Kangda
• 100 MW in Gansu by SETC Tianjin
• 1,000 MW in Qinghai by Lion International Investment Ltd.
• 2,000 MW in Shaanxi by Shandong Penglai Dianli and eSolar

Solar water heating

China is the first country for solar water heating capacity in the world, with 290 GWth in operation at the end of 2014, accounting for about 70% of the total world capacity. In terms of capacity per unit of population, China comes 7th in the world with 213 kWth per 1,000 people. Most of the installed capacity (92%) was evacuated tube water heaters.

Government incentives

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Controversy

China is a large producer of polysilicon, for use in first generation solar cells around the world. A byproduct of the process is poisonous silicon tetrachloride, which is normally processed and recycled at a higher cost in the developed world, but often dumped by Chinese green startups, With proper recycling the polysilicon would cost $84,500 per tonne, but the Chinese companies are making it at $21,000 to $56,000 a ton.

Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co., Ltd., founded in 2006 as a subsidiary of Hong Kong-invested JinkoSolar Holding Co, Ltd (NYSE Stock Code: JKS), produces solar panel photovoltaic cells and wafers. It employs more than 10,000 professionals in two factories in east China and has offshore offices and warehouse in the United States and Europe, according to the company website (www.jinkosolar.com). On Thursday, 15 September 2011, more than 500 people from Hongxiao Village protested over the large-scale death of fish in a nearby river. Angry protesters stormed the factory compound, overturned eight company vehicles, and destroyed the offices before police came to disperse the crowd. Protests continued on the two following nights with reports of scuffle, officials said. Chen Hongming, a deputy head of Haining's environmental protection bureau, said the factory's waste disposal had failed the pollution tests since April. The environmental watchdog has warned the factory but it had not effectively controlled the pollution, Chen added.

The Chinese government subsidies for solar energy (PV) have been described as "unsustainable" (although reduced in 2017) and are sometimes paid late to generating companies. Much of the solar power generating capacity has been built in the relatively less populated west of China whereas the major electricity consumption areas (such as Shanghai and Beijing) are in the east causing difficulties and expense in transferring the energy between regions with curtailment rates of 30% or more reported in 2017.

See also

• Climate change in China
• Electricity sector in China
• Growth of photovoltaics
• List of photovoltaics companies
• List of solar thermal power stations
• Renewable energy in China
• Renewable energy by country
• Solar Valley (China)
• Solar power by country

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External links

• Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association
• Yingli Green Energy
• China Solar PV Report (Greenpeace China) (2007)
• Kyocera Constructing New Solar Manufacturing Plant In China
• Solar Power Resources and News in the Asia-Pacific region, with focus page on China

v t e Solar energy companies in China
Solar power in China Renewable energy in China Energy in China
China Sunergy Daqo New Energy Hanwha SolarOne JA Solar Holdings JinkoSolar Jinniu Energy LONGi Suntech Power Tongwei Company Topray Solar Trina Solar Yingli
Energy companies of China

• Renewable energy
• China

• Solar power in China
• Science and technology in the People's Republic of China