In the next 30 years, solar PV power generation will increase from 3.5% to 39%, becoming the largest source of power in China.
At the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by the US, China made it clear that the key to sustainable development is “low-carbon energy”. The carbon emission of solar PV is one tenth to one twentieth of that of fossil energy. Although the power generation capacity of solar PV accounts for only 3.5% of the total capacity in China, it will gradually become one of the most important source of energy.
In Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia, over three million solar panels are aligned on the Kubuqi Desert to form China’s largest centralized solar PV power plant on the desert. The area is still expanding. Once its third phase construction is completed, the plant will generate 4 billion kWh of power, enough to satisfy the power demand of an economically strong county for one year.
A thousand miles away in Datong, Shanxi Province, the former coal mining subsidence area has become a PV power plant. In Huainan of Anhui Province and Jiangyan of Jiangsu Province, the solar panels serve as a good sunshade for the fish ponds while generating electricity. Satellite image shows that by 2019, there are more than 2600 such power plants in China, another proof to the rapid growth in installed capacity.
In 2011, China’s installed capacity was only 60% of that of Japan and the United States, and 6% of that of the European Union. However, after years of rapid development, China’s installed capacity has exceeded that of the entire EU in 2017.
The PV industrial chain also has been continuously optimized. China produces 70% to almost 100% of the world’s solar PV products across the four stages of solar panel production.
Technology upgrades and large production volumes have reduced the cost of PV power generation by more than 90% in the past decade. In many areas of Western China, the price of PV power is already lower than that of thermal power.
According to the prediction of the Energy Research Institute of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, nearly 40% of China’s electricity consumption will come from solar PV by 2050. More than a dozen provinces in China have made plans to develop solar PV. By 2025, the installed capacity in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other provinces will increase by more than half.
With the continuous development of solar PV and other clean energy, China is sure to walk on a steady path towards carbon emission peak and carbon neutral.
