Technicians check solar panels in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province. [Photo by YAO FENG/FOR CHINA DAILY] A report by the International Energy Agency, or IEA, on the future of renewable energy production has pinpointed China, and in particular its solar power capabilities, as leading the way for the world in the years to come.
Currently, over half of the nation's new installations of power generators are photovoltaic facilities. The surge prompted the CPIA to revise its projections for China's new PV installations this year, raising the forecast from an initial range of 120-140 GW to 160-180 GW. "China's solar power global market share has exceeded 80 percent.
China's solar industry climbed to new heights in 2023, with manufacturing, installed capacity and exports experiencing robust growth and reshaping the global landscape with continuous technological breakthroughs.
This allows the shipments to avoid trade barriers, like tariffs imposed on many Chinese imports by former US president Donald Trump. Several of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturers are building final assembly plants in the US to tap subsidies offered as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
At the annual session of China’s legislature earlier in March, Premier Li Qiang, the country’s second-highest official after President Xi Jinping, announced that the country would accelerate the construction of solar panel farms, as well as wind and hydroelectric projects.
According to the administration, rural areas in China that have the potential to install PV panels on roofs cover approximately 27.3 billion square meters, and there's huge potential for further development. Although distributed PV slightly surpassed centralized large-area PV in capacity, the latter's growth was faster, the CPIA said.