China’s Solar Power Installations Touch Record High Of 31 GW In First Half Of 2022

Installing solar power projects at breakneck speed, China built nearly 31 GW from January to June 2022. This is 137% more than last year during the same period. This trend, unless stopped midway, is extrapolated to clock between 75 GW and 90 GW by the end of this year.

According to Wang Bohua, the honorary Chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, total solar power capacity in China now stands at 340 GW, 25.8% more than last year. Breaking last year’s record of 54.9 GW, the total installations in 2022 are expected to clock between 75 GW and 90 GW, said Wang.

China’s dominance of clean solar technology is reflected in the huge surge in export of solar power equipment over the period. The export more than doubled to 25.9 billion yuan ($3.83 billion), despite tariffs and trade sanctions from the United States, India and Europe escalating into a major diplomatic oneupmanship.

China intends to increase its total wind and solar capacity to 1,200 GW by the end of the decade. Having produced 635 GW during 2021 end, the country is presently setting up large-scale renewable energy bases in desert regions. Land availability is a primary condition for a viable project to churn out renewable energy giving rise to concern among the stakeholders because China has begun to make the solar developers build a project on arable land or on coastlines and riverbanks.

Solar players in China benefit not just from significant government backing, but also a massive domestic market that has emerged to provide them the greatest opportunity seen in solar energy to test and learn. The country’s North and Northwest regions, with their cold, yet, dry air and flat lands provide ample scope for solar plants to provide much needed energy, and the result is some of the world’s most ambitious solar push in those regions today.

With China actively pushing its decarbonisation agenda to become a carbon-neutral economy by 2060, it is expected to add over 600 GW of solar capacity by 2030, besides other renewable energy sources.