Solar power in China

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.[17] 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.[17]

A part of Gansu Dunhuang Solar Park（10MW， Solar PV）

In 2010 a new feed-in tariff was introduced. Projects completed before 30 September 2012 received 1.15 yuan ($0.18) per kWh.[18] 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.[19]

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.[5] Chinese PV manufacturers, which were already running at full capacity, faced a difficult situation in 2011 and 2012 with huge financial losses that led to the bankruptcy of some important companies, such as SunTech Power in 2013 which defaulted on $541 million of convertible bonds.[5] To rescue the huge PV industry with its large labor market and assets, a comprehensive set of policies was introduced by the Chinese government mainly to stimulate the domestic market. Accordingly, the annual installed capacity in China experienced 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.[20] 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.[21]^{:p. 35}

In May 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that the solar capacity target had been increased, to 70 GW by 2017.[22] 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.[23] Market research firm NPD Group forecast that China would have over 100 GW of PV capacity by 2018.[24] 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 global PV capacity installed in 2010.[25] At that time, China planned to install 150 GW of solar power by 2020,[26] an increase of 50 GW compared to the 2020-target announced in October 2014.[23]

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 target for the whole year. This caused the Chinese Government to more than double the original target to 213 GW for 2020.[27] CCB International Securities Ltd. raised its forecast for China's solar power capacity to 55 gigawatts from 40 gigawatts for 2018.[28] Of the 7482 TWh of electricity produced in 2019,[29] China's solar power generated 234 TWh or 3.1%,[13] which is higher compared to the corresponding share of 1.2% in the United States.[30]

Global Horizontal Irradiation in China.[31]

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.[32]

China has large potential for concentrated solar power (CSP), especially in the south-western part of the country.[52] 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.[52] Practical limitations for deployment of CSP include mountainous terrain and distance from energy load centers, mostly concentrated in the east.[52]

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.[53] However, at the end of 2014, only 14 MW of CSP was operational in the country.[52]

Plants planned or under construction:[53]

• 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

Rooftop solar water heaters are ubiquitous in China

New solar hot water installations during 2007, worldwide

China is the leading 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.[16]

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,[54] 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.[54]

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.[55]

The Chinese government subsidies for solar energy (PV) have been described as "unsustainable" (although reduced in 2017)[56] 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.[56]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Solar power in China.

• 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