Solar power in China

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Cumulative installed PV capacity in gigawatts since 2007

China is the largest market in the world for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. China's photovoltaic industry began by making panels for satellites, and transitioned to the manufacture of domestic panels in the late 1990s.^[1] After substantial government incentives were introduced in 2011, China's solar power market grew dramatically: the country became the world's leading installer of photovoltaics in 2013. China surpassed Germany as the world's largest producer of photovoltaic energy in 2015,^[2][3] and became the first country to have over 100 GW of total installed photovoltaic capacity in 2017.^[4]

At the end of 2020, China's total installed photovoltaic capacity was 253 GW, accounting for one-third of the world's total installed photovoltaic capacity (760.4 GW).^[5] 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. In 2018, it held the record again with the Tengger Desert Solar Park with its photovoltaic capacity of 1.5 GW. China currently owns the second-largest solar plant in the world, the Huanghe Hydropower Hainan Solar Park, which has a capacity of 2.2 GW.^[6] In 2023, China completed the world's largest hydro-solar power plant in Sichuan, which utilises the consistency in hydropower production to offset the variability in solar power.^[7][8]

Solar power contributes to a small portion of China's total energy use, accounting for 3.5% of China's total energy capacity in 2020.^[9] Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the 2020 Climate Ambition Summit that China plans to have 1,200 GW of combined solar and wind energy capacity by 2030.^[10]

Solar water heating is also extensively implemented, with a total installed capacity of 290 GWth at the end of 2014, representing about 70% of world's total installed solar thermal capacity.^[11][12]

The expansion of the solar sector in China has been criticized due to the large quantities of waste being produced and improperly disposed of from the production of photovoltaic cells.^[13] Criticism over large amounts of unused energy being produced has appeared along with criticism over the forced removal of native populations for development land and the usage of forced labor in the production of photovoltaic cells.^[14][15][16]

As of at least 2023, solar power is cheaper than coal-fired power in China.^[17]: 167 By the first quarter of 2024, the momentum continued with China installing 45.7 gigawatts of photovoltaic panels, a 34% increase from the previous year. This reflects ongoing growth, although the increase was less than the 154% surge seen in early 2023, showing some variability in expansion rates.^[18]