In order to develop solar PV systems efficiently in China, and provide references to the central and local governments for RPS target-setting in terms of PV power consumption, this paper depicts reasonable deployment maps of solar PV stations at the provincial level from 2020 to 2022.
In 2018, the solar photovoltaic industry’s average value of total efficiency of six regions in China was between 0.4790 and 0.8350, which had smaller gap than before. Table 3 shows the CO2 emission reduction, solar utilization hours, and cumulative installed capacity efficiency scores of various provinces in China from 2015 to 2018.
However, compared with the enormous potential of solar power, the level of its utilization is low at present. Thus, further development of PV power has significant impetus for the in-depth development of energy conservation and emission reduction and the optimization of energy structure adjustment in China.
With regard to technology research and development, the latest photoelectric conversion efficiency of China’s mass production of silicon solar cell has reached more than 25%, which is the world’s leading level (Chen et al. 2022). Figure 3. Global top 10 solar PV markets, 2021–2022 (source: author drawing based on solar power Europe 2023).
Researchers have shown that there is huge potential for China’s solar photovoltaic power development. But to what extent can this potential be realized, and the pathways to fill the gap between actual performance and technically available solar resources still require in-depth study.
As one of the most promising renewable energy sources, the amount of solar photovoltaics has reached 104.1 GW in 2018. China not only has the natural advantages of abundant solar energy resources, but the photovoltaic industry under the government’s support has also become the main driving force for global development.