Furthermore, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a roadmap in 2021, forecasting that solar and wind power will contribute approximately 80 % of China's total electricity supply by 2060, with an installed PV capacity exceeding 4 TW, surpassing wind power capacity .
With the largest installed solar PV capacity worldwide since 2015 and a dominant position in PV product manufacturing and export, the industry continues to expand. Even in the pursuit of carbon neutrality, China's potential for PV growth remains significant.
Modelling results have led to the following main conclusions. It is predicted that the installed capacity of HSPV in China would increase at the rate of 13.7 GW/yr during the next decade driven by the long-term climate ambition, making up about 50% of the entire rooftop solar power market by 2050.
China has already made major commitments to transitioning its energy systems towards renewables, especially power generation from solar, wind and hydro sources. However, there are many unknowns about the future of solar energy in China, including its cost, technical feasibility and grid compatibility in the coming decades.
So there is a lot of uncertainty in the Chinese solar industry, but there are also irrefutable facts: China needs to continue to expand domestic solar capacity to reach its climate target. Similarly, global demand for PV products will not cease.
As discussed in the previous sections, China was able to dominate the solar industry market. Incentives and government subsidies dating from 2009 onwards helped secure the lead in the world for solar power production since 2017 (Liu et al., 2022; Chowdhury et al., 2020).