CFP China reached a milestone with advancing efforts to build a solar power station in space in 2028, aiming to convert sunlight in outer space into electrical supply to drive the satellites in orbits or transmit power back to Earth, according to China's spacecraft maker China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).
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.
China added almost twice as much utility-scale solar and wind power capacity in 2023 than in any other year. By the first quarter of 2024, China’s total utility-scale solar and wind capacity reached 758 GW, though data from China Electricity Council put the total capacity, including distributed solar, at 1,120 GW.
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.
China's first hybrid energy photovoltaic power station using both solar and tidal power in Wenling City of east China's Zhejiang Province is fully operational, May 30, 2022. /CFP
Wind and solar now account for 37% of the total power capacity in the country, an 8% increase from 2022, and widely expected to surpass coal capacity, which is 39% of the total right now, in 2024. Cumulative annual utility-scale solar & wind power capacity in China, in gigawatts (GW)