is the largest market in the world for both and. China's photovoltaic industry began by making panels for, and transitioned to the manufacture of domestic panels in the late 1990s. After substantial government incentives were introduced in 2011, China's solar power market grew dramatically: the country became the in 2013. China surpassed Germany as the world. is the largest market in the world for both and. China's photovoltaic industry began by making panels for, and transitioned to the manufacture of domestic panels in the late 1990s. After substantial government incentives were introduced in 2011, China's solar power market grew dramatically: the country became the in 2013. China surpassed Germany as the world's largest producer of photovoltaic energy in 2015, and became the first country to have over 100 GW of total installed photovoltaic capacity in 2017. As of at least 2024, Chinese firms are the industry leaders in almost all of the key parts of the solar industry supply chain, including polysilicon, silicon wafers, batteries, and photovoltaic modules. 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. In 2011, China owned the largest solar power plant in the world at the time, the, which had a photovoltaic capacity of 200 MW. In 2. Photovoltaic research in China began in 1958 with the development of China's first piece of. Research continued with the development of solar cells for space satellites in 1968. The Institute of Semiconductors of the led this research for a year, stopping after batteries failed to operate. Other research institutions continued the development and research of solar cells for. In 1975, domestic solar cell production began with factories in Ningbo and Kaifeng. These cells were produced in a similar fashion to the satellite cells of the past. Annual solar capacity installations were still low, as only 0.5 kW of photovoltaic capacity was installed. This increased to 8 kW in 1980, 70 kW in 1985, 500 kW in 1990, and 1550 kW in 1995. China's (1981-1985) was the first to address government for solar PV panel manufacturing. Policy support for solar panel manufacturing has been a part of every since. In the early 1990s, scientists developed a new type of solar water heater design. These units became ubiquitous in rural China during the early 2000s. By 2014, China had more than 85 million solar water heaters, primarily operating in rural households. In 1998, demonstration projects for solar energy production began to appear, starting with a 3W polysilicon battery and applications for the energy. became one of the first producers of this new solar energy. However, annual capacity did not increase much until 2002 when a 10 MW solar cell production line was put into operation by. That year, a program aimed to install more solar and wind energy in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Sichuan was introduced by the National Development and Planning Commission. This spurred solar cell production and annual installations skyrocketed from 3.3 MW in 2000 to 20.3 MW in 2002. Photovoltaic cell production expanded in the following years, with 140 MW manufactured in 2005. Only 5 MW of solar energy was installed in China that year, however, as most of the manufactured photovoltaic cells were sold to European countries, with Germany being the largest buyer. China's annual solar energy installations grew to 10 MW installed in 2006, increasing China's total installed solar energy capacity to 80 MW. Annual solar energy installations continued to grow, with 20 MW of capacity installed in 2007 and 40 MW installed in 2008. After Suntech's listing on the in 2005, founder became the richest person in China. Ac. A July 2019 report found that local air pollution ( and sulfur dioxide) has decreased the available solar energy that can be harnessed today by up to 15% compared to the 1960s. As of at least 2024, China has one third of the world's installed solar panel capacity and is the largest domestic market for solar panels. A large part of the solar power capacity installed in China is in the form of large PV power plants in the west of the country, an area much less populated than the eastern part but with better solar resources and available land. In 2018 23,300 MW of utility scale power plant installations were added bring the cumulative total in this sector to 123,730 MW of power. Distributed installations rose by almost as much during 2018 at 20,960 MW bringing the cumulative total in the sector to 51,250 MW by year end 2018. Off-grid solar was the smallest component in 2018 with just 360 MW cumulatively installed. China has been the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels since 2008 and, since 2011, has produced the majority of global photovoltaics on an annualized basis. Industry projections estimated that, by the end of 2017, China would have enough manufacturing capacity to produce 51 GW of PV modules per year, an amount over twice as large as 2010's global production of 24 GW. The industry is dominated by several major manufacturers. They include CHINT Group Corporation,,,,, and. Large debt challenges several manufacturers. China has large potential for (CSP), especially in the south-western part of the country. The highest daily mean values of are found in the and, at 9 kWh/m2. Most of northern and western China has daily average direct normal radiation over 5 kWh/m2, considered the limit for economical use of CSP. Practical limitations for deployment of CSP include mountainous terrain and distance from energy load centers, mostly concentrated in the east. The 12th five-year plan, for 2011 to 2015, called for the installation of 1,000 MW by 2015, and 3,000 MW of CSP plants by 2020. However, at the end of 2014, only several demonstration stations were operational in the country. In the subsequent 13th five-year plan a demonstration batch for 20 CSP plants for 1.35 GW was launched, which aimed to bring latest international technologies to China and build a domestic CSP industry. Plants were located in different provinces and used several different routes, including parabolic trough, central receiver towers and a novel beam-down tower design. The initially target for 2018 could not be met and deadlines were extended multiple times, and the initially planned second batch was canceled. At the end of 2021 the installed capacity stood at 550 MW. Chinese industry has gained considerable experience in the molten-salt storage technology and operating results of the plants are promising and meet their design parameters. In the current 14th five-year plan there is no federal support for CSP. However, several provinces including Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjian UAR and Jilin have announced CSP projects in the context of the storage and peak shaving legislation. Optimistic assessments suggest that several GW could be built in the next five years.
