A major push to install rooftop solar panels on Chinese buildings is putting the nation on track for another record-setting year on renewable energy.
In September, China’s National Energy Bureau announced a new initiative for local governments to partner with solar developers to build rooftop arrays. Under the scheme, building owners can purchase solar panels and sell the power they generate to developers, or developers can lease rooftop space to install solar panels they own.
Rooftops and buildings in China fitted with solar panels could match the current global capacity of the entire industry, according to new analysis.
Most of that rooftop solar has been added in the past two years, as China offered support for local governments to boost installations, and raised power rates to businesses, making generating their own electricity more attractive.
Workers install solar panels on the Hongqiao Passenger Rail Terminal in Shanghai, China. The Climate Group via Flickr China is expecting to install 108 gigawatts of solar capacity this year, almost double the 55 gigawatts installed in 2021, with much of the growth driven by rooftop solar.
The resulting renewables boom saw China build more small-scale solar last year than the total new clean power capacity in any other country. Roughly one of every five panels installed worldwide in 2022 was fixed atop a Chinese home or business. One of every five panels installed in the world in 2022 was fixed atop a Chinese home or business.