- The NEA has released official PV capacity addition numbers for the period between January 2020 to June 2020 in China
- 5 GW of new PV was added to the national grid comprising 7.082 GW of utility scale and 4.435 GW of distributed PV
- Individual capacity added in Q1 and Q2 has not been shared but a recent CPIA observation said 4.99 GW could have been installed in June 2020 alone
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has confirmed solar PV capacity additions in the country in the first 6 months of 2020 to have added up to 11.52 GW, adding a little above 11.4 GW it reported for the same period last year (see China Installed 11.4 GW New Solar In H1/2019).
Large scale solar power plants contributed 7.082 GW to this cumulative with distributed generation was another 4.435 GW. Among the regions with highest new capacity installation during this period were North China with 439 MW and East China with 2.19 GW.
Though NEA does not specify Individual capacity addition for Q1 and Q2, one can expect Q2/2020 additions to be around 7.57 GW since it stated 3.95 GW as the newly installed capacity during Q1/2020 (see China Installed 3.95 GW New Solar In Q1/2020). This goes on to show that China was able to overcome the impact it felt due to COVID-19 related lockdowns in the first quarter.
Earlier this month, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) said it expected 11.5 GW capacity for H1/2020 in the country with the month of June 2020 alone contributing 4.99 GW while May is likely to have added 1.43 GW (see China PV News Snippets: Talesun & Jolywood). Most forecasts for the Chinese solar PV market for 2020 pin the annual number between 32 GW to 45 GW (see CPIA Expects 32 GW To 45 GW Solar In 2020 For China).
With this, the cumulative installed and grid connected solar PV capacity of China at the end of June 2020 went up to 216 GW, as per NEA, including 149 GW of utility scale and 67.07 GW of distributed solar PV spread across the country.
