Solar power to boost China’s generation capacity growth in 2023

It accounted for about half of the new capacity in 2022.

The growth of China’s power generation capacity in 2023 will continue to be led by solar installations, according to a report by CreditSights.

The country’s total installed capacity rose 7.8% year-on-year (YoY) in 2022 to reach 2,546 gigawatts (GW), with new solar installations of 86GW accounting for nearly half of the new capacity due to the declining costs of poly-silicon.

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“We expect solar installation to continue to drive China's power capacity growth over the next three years as part of the country's goal to raise non-thermal generation capacity (ex-hydro) to 18% by 2025 from the current 16%,” CreditSights said, adding that it will also benefit from the top line growth of the State Power Investment Corp.

On the other hand, China saw a slowed capacity addition in the offshore wind due to the expiration of tariff subsidies, it said.