BEIJING – China’s blistering roll-out of solar capacity slowed as grids struggled to build enough power lines and backup capacity.
The country installed 45.7 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic panels in the first three months, up more than a third from a year earlier, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a statement on April 22.
While impressive compared with other countries, the growth rate pales in comparison with the 154 per cent surge in the same quarter of 2023.
China, which still gets most of its electricity from coal, added a record 217GW of solar panels in 2023 – more than the US has ever built. Installations are seen at as much as 220GW in 2024, according to forecasts from the solar industry association.
That expansion will likely be driven by utility-scale projects, especially the massive renewables programme concentrated in the country’s interior deserts, according to BloombergNEF.
The nation needs to ensure the new capacity has the requisite infrastructure to transmit clean power from less-populated inland areas to consumption centres.
Rooftop solar, which tends to be in more urban areas and has in recent years accounted for about half of capacity growth, is also facing grid challenges.
Local networks have struggled with the large amount of intermittent electricity, and have been forced to curtail their generation or allow prices to go negative during low-demand time periods.
That has had a knock-on effect on the utilisation of solar energy. The average panel generated about 8 per cent less power in the first quarter from a year earlier, data released on April 22 shows.
The government is stepping up efforts to bolster grids in order to continue the clean energy expansion and meet its decarbonisation goals.
The NEA and the National Development and Reform Commission announced a plan earlier in 2024 to enable the grid to connect 500GW of small-scale renewables by 2025, while grid companies also pledged to build more high-voltage long-distance power lines.
The country also added 15.5GW of wind, 6.4GW of thermal, and 1.8GW of hydropower capacity in the first three months, the NEA said. BLOOMBERG
