China’s official press agency has revealed that the country’s solar PV capacity is expected to hit 150 GW by 2020.
According to Xinhua News Agency, quoting Dong Xiufen, the director of the new energy office with National Energy Administration (NEA), China’s solar PV power capacity will hit 150 GW by 2020.
Dong Xiufen referenced the latest NEA data which had the country’s total solar PV power capacity standing at 35.8 GW at the end of June, and that “future work will focus on distributing PV in central and east China as well as PV stations in west China” in an attempt to increase PV capacity by 20 GW each year.
The NEA released figures earlier this year showing that China installed 7.7 GW of new solar in the first half of the year, admitting that congestion on the grid caused by a higher share of solar energy forced 9% of total installed solar PV to sit idle for the first six months of the year.
This allows for a huge second half of the year, if analyst predictions are to be reached.
IHS senior research director Ash Sharma believes that China is likely to install in excess of 17 GW in 2015, contributing heavily to a global solar PV demand demand of 59 GW.
Interestingly, China’s own predictions come in under the predictions of some analyst firms, such as cleantech advisory firm Apricum, which in August predicted China’s total cumulative solar capacity to reach 180 GW. The Berlin-based cleantech consulting firm predicted that 92 GW of solar will be added annually by 2020, with 36 GW coming from the combined forces of China, the US, and India.
