China’s solar energy goals for 2015, in the last year, have gone from 5 GW to 10 GW… to 15GW. Last year, on the last day of the year(!), China seemed to reach a total of 1 GW of installed solar power in 2011. This was the first time the country hit that amount, of course. (Note: the U.S. hit that same milestone in 2011, but a little earlier in the year — in September.) That brought China’s total installed solar capacity to about 2 GW (yes, approximately doubling its cumulative capacity).
However, 2011 may look lame compared to 2012. Suntech’s Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Beebe, expects that China will be a “multi-gigawatt market” in 2012, according to Greentech Media, and Liu Tienan, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), projects that the country will hit a “total installed capacity of 3 gigawatts in 2012,” according to Xinhua News Agency.
Suffice it to say, China may pass up the U.S. in total, cumulative installed solar capacity within the next year or two. If you’ve read many of our 187 stories filed under the ‘China‘ tag, this should come as no surprise to you. The country is investing a staggering amount of money into installing clean energy. Note, of course, that it is investing a staggering amount of money into energy sources of various sorts. In total, China added about 35 GW of new generating capacity (all sources) in 2011. (Wow.) Nonetheless, its clean energy commitments are nothing to scoff at. I hope will see further increases of its 2015 and 2020 solar targets in 2012 again.
Here are some of Suntech’s Chinese projects (as emailed to Greentech Media):
- Zhangjiakou, Hebei province — 50 megawatts
- Ge’ermu, Qinghai province — 50 megawatts
- Dongtai, Jiangsu province — 20 megawatts
- Yixing, Jiangsu province — 50 megawatts
- Tibet — 20 megawatts
- Ningxia — 10 megawatts
Big projects,… a bunch of them!
Source: Greentech Media | Chinese kids & solar panels via International Rivers
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
