China has installed 48.2 GW of solar capacity in 2020, representing an increase of 60 percent compared to 2019 (30.11 GW), according to the latest data from the National Energy Administration (NEA). The solar installations in 2020 were the second-largest ever, only behind the 52.8 GW installed in 2017.
The country added 18.7 GW of solar capacity from January to September 2020, a 17 percent increase compared to 16 GW installed during the same period in 2019. During the fourth quarter alone China added 29.5 GW of new solar capacity.
According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory Co. Ltd. (AECEA), monthly installation figures reveal, that up to 23.3 GW were deployed in December: »Just one month almost half of last year’s entire installations were realized,« says CEO Frank Haugwitz.
By the end of 2020 China was home to in total 252.5 GW of solar PV, thus exceeding the official 13th Five-Year-Plan (2016-2020) target of 105 GW by 140 percent.
Last year an additionally of 71.67 GW of wind power were installed, bringing it to a total of 281.72 GW. Wind and PV installations combined amounts to more than 530 GW, representing 24 percent of China’s operational 2,200 GW power generation capacities.
Given last year’s performance of the combined wind and solar installations of 119.9 GW, AECEA expects that this »may have served as an indicator encouraging NEA to announce considering an aim of 120 GW of wind and PV installations in 2021 in late December.
