Beijing — China’s installed solar electric power generation capacity rose by 55.2% in 2023, data released by the National Energy Agency showed on Friday.
The country built in excess of 216 gigawatts (GW) of solar power this year, the data indicated, underscoring the scale and pace of China’s solar build out.
China’s overall power generation capacity grew by 13.9% over the course of 2023 to reach a total of 2919 GW. Alongside new solar projects, the country’s wind power generation capacity jumped by 20.7%, the data showed.
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The rapid capacity growth has been driven by a set of government targets announced in 2020, under which Beijing plans to achieve peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The government committed to construct 1,200 GW of renewable capacity by 2030 to support this, but China is on track to meet that goal five years early.
The utilisation time at China’s larger generation facilities fell last year, the data showed, indicating that capacity increases outstripped energy demand growth.
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Hydro power generation fell by around 5.6% last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics previously showed.
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Reporting by Andrew Hayley and Colleen Howe; Editing by Toby Chopra – Reuters
