CHANGCHUN, China, January. 21, 2020 /PVTIME/ – National power industry statistics released by the National Energy Administration (NEA) today revealed China’s cumulative solar generation capacity by 2019 year-end to be 204.68GW. Subtracting the cumulative total of 174.63GW from last year’s report, it can be determined that a total of 30.05GW solar generation capacity was added in 2019.
According to statistics published by the NEA, only 15.99GW of solar had been added in the first three quarters of 2019, even with the additional 14.06GW added in the last quarter, total solar power generation capacity added in 2019 is still 32.1% lower than last year’s total of 44.26GW.
Back in 2018, the introduction of the industry landscape changing 5/31 policy caused solar generation capacity for the year to drop 16.6% from 2017’s 53.06GW peak. This year, the aftermath of the policy is even more apparent in the drastic decrease in newly added solar capacity. Moving forward, whether or not this downward trend can be halted or reversed will depend heavily on the government’s the commitment towards power generation through renewables reflected in future policies. Moreover, China’s photovoltaic manufacturing advantages will continue to decrease costs as enterprises become more efficient on the road towards grid parity, and make deploying solar more economical.
The Chinese Photovoltaic Industry Association has stated that China is aiming to add 40GW of solar in 2020， whether or not this goal will be realized is still a topic up for debate among industry insiders.
