China’s mammoth 2022 solar installations double those of 2021

by Peter Schulte

By the end of this year, China is expected to install 108 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity, according to Yale Environment 360. This record-breaking production is the most it has ever installed in one year and is nearly double the 55 GW that the country installed in 2021. 

China’s National Energy Bureau announced a new initiative for local governments to partner with solar developers to build rooftop arrays.Under this new initiative, owners can purchase solar panels and sell the power generated to developers or developers can lease the rooftop space to install solar panels they do own. 

Distributed solar, a type of solar panel array that consists of rooftop installations, accounted for over half of the new solar capacity in China for the first time last year. Already, China has installed 9 GW of distributed solar this year with new policies to encourage more installations. It was announced recently that the target is for 50% of new factory rooftops to sport solar installations by 2025. 

By the end of 2023, the Bureau hopes to greatly increase the number of solar arrays and continue to expand China’s solar capacity in the coming years.