In the first three quarters of 2023, China's photovoltaic market has witnessed a remarkable expansion, with the country investing a staggering 222.9 billion yuan in photovoltaic power generation—an impressive YoY growth of 67.8%. Surprisingly, over half of the nation's newly added power generation capacity came from photovoltaic installations.
Wang Dapeng, Deputy Director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of China's National Energy Administration, revealed that in the same period, China experienced a substantial increase of 172 gigawatts in renewable energy installations, marking a remarkable 93% YoY growth and constituting 76% of the total new installations. Therein, hydropower added 7.88GW of new installations, including 3.68GW of conventional hydropower and 4.2GW of pumped storage. Wind power added 33.48GW of new installations, including 32.05GW of onshore wind power and 1.43GW of offshore wind power. and solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation added 128.94GW of new installations, including 61.80GW of centralized PV and 67.14GW of distributed PV. and biomass power generation added 2.07GW of new installations.
It's worth noting that, from January to September, the added capacity for solar power generation reached an impressive 128.94 gigawatts, marking a remarkable year-on-year growth of 145.1%. The cumulative installed capacity for solar power generation has now reached approximately 520 gigawatts, showcasing a substantial year-on-year increase of 45.3%. Comparatively, the annual data for new photovoltaic installations last year stood at 87.41 gigawatts. Notably, in the first three quarters of this year alone, the installation volume has surpassed the entire previous year, exceeding it by nearly half.
Regarding the full-year installation expectations for 2023, Wang Bohua, Honorary Chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, had initially revised the forecast from 95 gigawatts to 120-140 gigawatts. However, the actual installation data as of September, totaling 128.94 gigawatts, has already met and exceeded the association's revised annual forecast.
Another prediction from Trendforce's New Energy Research Center recently raised the expectations for the global photovoltaic installation demand in 2023. For China, the forecasts are as follows:
Neutral Scenario: 194 gigawatts, a remarkable 122% YoY increase.
Optimistic Scenario: 210 gigawatts, an impressive 140% YoY increase.
