Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 29 2022

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

Chinese rooftop solar booming

on back of public installations

CHINA SOLAR capacity installations across China in same pace” the honorary chair of the China
2022 are expected to reach 108 GW, sources in Photovoltaic Industry Association said recently.
the capital Beijing now say. The first quarter of 2022 alone saw distributed
If realised, the figure will be almost double the solar generation reach 9 GW, triple the figure
55-GW total solar capacity installed across the seen in the same period a year ago.
nation in 2021. In recent years Beijing has announced a range
According to government figures, installed of large-scale solar installations in more remote
capacity to date in 2022 had reached 24 GW by parts of the country, which has seen China post
the end of May. ever more impressive numbers of total installed
It is understood that much of the increase is PV capacity.
down to central government-backed drives to Some analysts, however, are now claiming
install rooftop capacity on public buildings the that the recently introduced rooftop installa-
length and breadth of the country. tion policies could one day lead to a total of
Earlier in the month, China’s housing depart- around 600 GW of overall capacity if properly
ment in conjunction with the National Develop- implemented.
ment and Reform Commission revealed a plan Senior analyst at CRECA Xing Zhang said
to cover half of all new public buildings and fac- of Beijing’s advances in solar power genera-
tories with solar panels by 2025. tion: “China is making very impressive efforts
Coupled to a 2021 policy adopted by the to install solar energy”, adding that the country
National Energy Bureau aimed at covering 50% “has gigantic projects and smaller projects like
of government buildings in addition to 40% of rooftop PVs. Almost all the available surfaces in
other public facilities, including hospitals and China are going to be covered by solar panels,
schools, with solar panels, the joint policies have with big projects covering the deserts and small
attracted interest from hundreds of counties projects covering the rooftops.”
across the nation. There have been some calls for caution,
Even in the more remote west and north-west though, with questions raised as to just how pre-
of the country, there has been significant interest pared China’s existing infrastructure is to receive
in helping the national government meet its goal all the potential extra power produced.
of coverage across 30% of industrial buildings as The overwhelming mood in Chinese renew-
well as 20% of all rural homes. ables circles is positive, however.
Lauri Myllyvirta of Helsinki-based think- Beijing-based Refinitiv senior analyst Jin
tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Boyang is typical of the majority of those backing
Clean Air (CRECA) called the policy “ambi- the government’s joint policies. “The programme
tious and smart” and tweeted “(T)he blistering will definitely drive China’s installed solar capac-
growth in China’s solar power installations this ity in the coming years,” and is a “promising”
year is largely driven by distributed (and) roof- method by which China will approach its 2025
top projects.” goal of 1,200 GW of (total) renewable capacity.
Distributed solar generation has risen sub- With the 1,200-GW target an ever-present
stantially across China of late, with 2021 being number in Chinese renewables discussions, as
the first year distributed power constituted more Ms. Zhang at CRECA said, China’s rooftop solar
than half the total generated. It is a trend only will in time “help to decarbonise China’s power
forecast to increase. sector and help with the (nation’s) energy system
“Looking ahead, we will see distributed solar transition.”™
power and centralised solar farms grow at the

Week 29 20•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11