China Becomes The First To Hit The 3 GW Utility-Scale Solar Milestone


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China has surpassed the 3 GW (3,000 MW) milestone for utility-scale solar power production capacity. It’s the first country to do so and is sitting pretty at the top of the utility-scale solar rankings.

Apart from that, keep in mind that Chinese homes and businesses are utilizing rooftop solar-power production systems, as well as solar thermal water heaters to reduce electricity usage by eliminating the need for electric water heaters.

utility scale solar rankings china leading

According to project tracker Wiki-Solar, worldwide utility solar added 3.75 GW to electricity production capacity in the first half of 2013, and China contributed more than 1 GW (26%) of that. The world is now close to 15 GW of utility-scale solar power. As the table above shows, the top 5 countries for utility-scale solar (and their capacities) are:

  • China (3.137 GW)
  • Germany (2.896 GW)
  • US (2.895 GW)
  • India (1.19 GW)
  • Spain (1.151 GW)

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Nicholas Brown

Has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

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