Of the total global solar PV capacity, 35.45% is in China. Listed below are the five largest active solar PV power plants by capacity in China, according to GlobalData’s power plants database. GlobalData uses proprietary data and analytics to provide a complete picture of the global solar PV power segment.
The government incentives have also contributed to the curtailment of solar energy, as many of the solar projects have been built in northern and western regions of China where there is a low demand for electricity and a lack of infrastructure to transfer energy towards China's main power grid.
A large part of the solar power capacity installed in China is in the form of large PV power plants in the west of the country, an area much less populated than the eastern part but with better solar resources and available land.
The plan seems to be working. Last year, China installed a record-breaking 87.4 GW of solar capacity, 59% more than in the previous year, according to China’s National Energy Administration. This takes the country’s total installed photovoltaic capacity to 392.6 GW.
Between March 2023 and March 2024, China installed more solar than it had in the previous three years combined, and more than the rest of the world combined for 2023. Solar capacity first surpassed wind in 2022, and the gap has grown significantly larger, thanks to the massive expansion of distributed solar.
Solar PV capacity accounted for 13.0% of total power plant installations globally in 2022, according to GlobalData, with total recorded solar PV capacity of 1,109GW. This is expected to contribute 30% by the end of 2030 with capacity of installations aggregating up to 4,002GW. Of the total global solar PV capacity, 35.45% is in China.