China has pledged to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and has invested into renewable sources of energy, including solar power, to help meet this pledge. China has been opening new plants for solar energy production.
Most of China's solar power is generated within its western provinces and is transferred to other regions of the country. In 2011, China owned the largest solar power plant in the world at the time, the Huanghe Hydropower Golmud Solar Park, which had a photovoltaic capacity of 200 MW.
As China has the world's largest installed capacity of solar energy, the development of the solar power generation in China will have a profound impact on the healthy development of the global solar power industry. Based on the China's experience, the following suggestions are given for the other countries:
As such, critics argue that investments into renewable energy sources such as solar power are means to increase the power of the central state rather than protect the environment. This argument has been complemented by China's expansion of fossil fuel plants in conjunction with solar energy.
As of at least 2024, China has one third of the world's installed solar panel capacity. Most of China's solar power is generated within its western provinces and is transferred to other regions of the country.
An overview of the solar energy resources China has abundant solar energy resources, mainly distributed in the arid regions of plateau and the Western China [7, p. 3]. The annual average radiation level is 1050–2450 kW h/m 2 in these regions with 96% of area over 1050 kW h/m 2 [17, p. 36].