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China is now world’s biggest producer of solar energy

February 6, 2017

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A worker inspects solar panels at a solar farm in Dunhuang, 950km northwest of Lanzhou, Gansu Province — A worker inspects solar panels at a solar Dunhuang, 950km (590 miles) northwest of Lanzhou, Gansu Province September 16, 2013. China is pumping investment into wind power, which is more cost-competitive than solar energy and partly able to compete with coal and gas. China is the world's biggest producer of CO2 emissions, but is also the world's leading generator of renewable electricity. Environmental issues will be under the spotlight during a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will meet in Stockholm from September 23-26. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (CHINA - Tags: ENERGY BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT) - RTX13UEF

China’s installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity more than doubled last year, turning the country into the world’s biggest producer of solar energy by capacity, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday.

Installed PV capacity rose to 77.42 gigawatts at the end of 2016, with the addition of 34.54 gigawatts over the course of the year, data from the energy agency showed.

Shandong, Xinjiang, Henan were among the provinces that saw the most capacity increase, while Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia had the greatest overall capacity at the end of last year, according to the data.

China will add more than 110 gigawatts of capacity in the 2016-2020 period, according to the NEA’s solar power development plan.

Solar plants generated 66.2 billion kilowatt-hours of power last year, accounting for 1 per cent of China’s total power generation, the NEA said.

The country aims to boost the mix of non-fossil fuel generated power to 20 percent by 2030 from 11 per cent today.

China plans to plough 2.5 trillion yuan ($364 billion) into renewable power generation by 2020.