five year plan

China’s solar industry rebounded in 2023 after years of pandemic-related sluggishness. As the year draws to a close, pv magazine looks back at key highlights of 2023 and considers the prospects for 2024.

With polysilicon production capacity having been rapidly rolled out after last year’s shortages, China analyst Frank Haugwitz has suggested global manufacturing capability for the ethylene vinyl acetate used on PV panels could struggle to keep pace with what is expected to be another record year of demand for solar.

With the nation having operated seven pilot programs since 2011, a national scheme started trading on Friday, although the first day’s average carbon price of around €6.70 per ton of emissions was significantly below the €50/ton levels currently being seen in Europe.

The federal government will provide $131 million of soft loans for a $177 million, 100 MW solar park near the Jamuna river in Bangladesh’s Jamalpur district, where a second park of a similar size is being planned by Dhaka and a Chinese partner.

The National Energy Administration has ordered grid companies to supply enough network connection points for all the solar and wind projects registered in 2019 and 2020, and said variable renewables should be supplying 11% of the nation’s electricity by the end of the year.

The board of Xinyi Solar has announced it expects to have to install energy storage at its Chinese solar projects from July onwards, as a result of the recently launched five-year plan.

Having fallen far short of its ambition to generate 10% of its power from renewables by last year, Dhaka is preparing to reformulate its national clean power target.

The tide of clean energy facilities planned under the city’s next five-year strategy was revealed by Hong Kong-listed polysilicon maker Xinte Energy, which has signed a framework agreement to construct 200,000 tons of manufacturing capacity near Inner Mongolia’s largest city.

With the nation almost doubling its new generation capacity figure for the year last month, the National Energy Administration is reportedly considering a joint solar and wind capacity target of 120 GW for this year.

The Chinese leader has revealed some details of his nation’s commitment to go carbon neutral by 2060. That solar and wind power promise could even prove to be a conservative estimate, according to the nation’s solar industry.