China installs record number of rooftop solar panels in CY’21

The Chinese government has been more focused on boosting its green energy production to support the electricity requirement by installing a record number of rooftop solar panels in CY’21. During the year, a record capacity of 53 gigawatts (GW) of solar or photovoltaic (PV) energy was added, as per the China’s National Energy Administration (NEA). Prior to this, the highest annual addition was around 48.67 GW in CY’18.

China leads the world on roof-top solar installations: China has reached 108 GW of installed capacity of roof-top solar in CY’21. Meanwhile, out of 53 GW added in the year, 29 GW was by the way of roof-top installations and most of the installations were made in (Oct-Dec) Q4 with developers rushing to meet their subsidy deadlines.

However, the government was forced to cut their previous forecast of adding 65 GW in CY’21 majorly due to the lag in the large scale installations on account of project delays and high costs.

Urban installations to continue despite lapse of subsidy: As the local authorities are now allowed to make bulk purchases to reduce their costs, the roof-top solar panel installations are likely to continue even with the timeline of subsidy being lapsed. Installation of roof-top panels on 50% of the government buildings, 40% of schools, 30% industrial buildings and 20% of rural households is expected from the industry participants by the end of CY’23.

A long way to go: The traditional way of power generation continues to drive the economic growth of the world’s highly populated country and industrial hub. China’s reliance on coal and gas-based power plants was about 71% in both CY’20 and CY’21, as per the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China. However, the share of hydro-power stood at around 15% followed by 7% from wind and 2% from solar in the clean energy segment.

Furthermore, the solar power industry expects 75 GW of rooftop panels to be installed in CY’22, supported by the government’s impetus on promoting residential installation and boosting the generation of clean energy.