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PV developers in China are entering into the final phase of construction and grid connection as it is close to the June-30 deadline. A data shows that China may add more than 20GW of solar capacity in the first half of 2017 and hence increase the cumulative capacity to near 90GW.
In the first quarter of 2017, China added 7.21GW of solar nationwide, while many of them were installed in the fourth quarter of 2016 and interconnected this year. A data obtained by China’s local media, PV men, shows that the country’s PV installation in April and May were about 3.87GW.
New PV installations between February and May were gradually completed in a stable step month by month, which is correspond to the price trend collected and investigated by EnergyTrend.
The Chinese market entered into installation boom in June and had driven price rise since mid-May. PV men speculates that PV installation simply in June can reach 10~12GW, increasing the total capacity added in the first half of 2017 to about 22GW.
Adding China’s cumulative installation capacity of over 77GW by the end of 2016, the world’s largest PV market’s PV capacity could reach 90GW by mid-2017, very close to the government’s “105GW and above” target baseline for its Thirteenth Five-year Plan.
Besides, distributed generation (DG) solar systems represented 44.7% and 40.4% of added PV capacity in this April and May, respectively. In the first five months of 2017, China’s DG solar installation could exceed 4GW.
Residential rooftop PV market is the most promising segment among China’s DG solar markets. A national investigation estimates that a market value of up to RMB 320 billion can be created as long as 20% of Chinese households install rooftop PV arrays.
Residential rooftop PV systems had an 83% market share from China’s total DG solar systems.
