China drives up annual PV installations to over 340 GW in 2024

Monthly PV installations in China in 2024 versus 2023, cumulated from January through December. Unit: 10,000 kW
Monthly PV installations in China grew almost continuously in 2024, with the usual year-end rally in December – Chart: guangfu.bjx.com

The world’s largest solar market achieved a growth rate of 28% in 2024. The usual year-end rally pushed new installations to 85 GW in December alone – as much as the USA and India installed together over the whole year.

Thanks to another December rally, annual solar installations in China reached a record of roughly 333 GW, measured by the direct current (DC) power of installed solar modules.

According to Chinese media reports citing data from the National Energy Administration (NEA), new solar installations totaled 277.17 GW, measured by the alternating current (AC) power output of the inverters. Applying an average DC/AC ratio of 1.2 in China, one lands at a solar module capacity of nearly 333 GW.

As the NEA statistics cover only photovoltaic (PV) power plants with a capacity of more than 6 MW, Bernreuter Research assumes that smaller systems make up an additional 10 GWDC. That would result in a total of 343 GWDC.

The AC figure of 277.17 GW is based on a cumulative installed PV capacity of 886.66 GWAC at the end of 2024 versus 609.49 GWAC at the end of 2023. The NEA will likely still correct the 2023 figure slightly upwards so that the amount of new installations in 2024 could be a little bit lower than 277.17 GWAC.

In any case, annual PV installations of approx. 343 GWDC in 2024 versus 268 GWDC in 2023 mean a growth rate of 28%. Given the high installation base and the fact that grid constraints are also surfacing in China, this number is remarkable.

New installations in December alone were 70.87 GWAC or 85 GWDC. That is roughly as much as the USA and India, the world’s second and third largest PV countries, installed together over the whole year.

The chart above from guangfu.bjx.com shows China’s monthly installations in 2024 versus 2023, each cumulated from January through December. The unit is 10,000 kW; so 27717 means 277,170,000 kW or 277.17 GW.

Get Your In-depth Report: The Polysilicon Market Outlook 2027

  • Benefit from 102 pages full of rich data, in-depth analyses and detailed forecasts on the polysilicon, solar and semiconductor industries
  • Learn all about the latest developments of polysilicon manufacturing technologies (Siemens process, fluidized bed reactor, upgraded silicon kerf loss from wafer sawing)
  • Obtain comprehensive data on production volumes and capacities of 45 solar-grade and electronic-grade polysilicon plants from 2020 through 2027
  • Gain insight into decisive market trends, based on four sophisticated scenarios of supply and demand through 2027
  • Get valuable guidance with cash cost data on 30 solar-grade polysilicon plants and spot price forecasts through 2027

Go to the Report


Go back

Comments

Add a comment

Back to Polysilicon News