China increases installed PV capacity target for 2015 to 15GW

Dec. 16, 2011 - Chris Whitmore - pv-tech.org

Astronergy's 20MW installation in Golmud is one of the largest in China. Image: Astronergy

China has upwardly revised its solar power development target for 2015 by 50%, reports Bloomberg. The new target set by the National Energy Administration (NEA) for installed capacity is 15GW.

This is the second time in 2011 that China has revised its 2015 capacity goal – after the Japanese nuclear power crisis the figure was doubled to 10GW – and has been prompted by the rapid increase in solar power installations in recent months, after the government unified grid feed-in tariffs for the first time in July and offered a higher price for projects completed before the year’s end.

Twelve months ago, China’s installed capacity stood at just 1GW. However, the country’s burgeoning upstream and downstream PV sectors, have seen the government drastically reassess solar’s role in its energy generation portfolio. Several utility-scale projects have recently been completed, and with this number due to rise exponentially in 2012, the NEA expects annual solar power output will reach 20 billion kWh by 2015.