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3 GW of Solar to be Installed in China in 2012?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 14:40

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(Before It's News)

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):