LONDON, 30 Jan. - (ANA)  - China’s record-breaking solar buildout and vast manufacturing scale are reshaping global clean-energy markets faster than power systems and policymakers can adapt. As domestic constraints tighten, Beijing’s solar dominance is increasingly expressed through overseas localisation, strategic leverage and rule-setting in emerging energy technologies.

 

In the first half of 2025, China added approximately 256 gigawatts (GW) of new solar-power-generation capacity to its electric grid, equivalent to the United States’ entire installed solar fleet and more than the rest of the world combined installed in the same period. This represented a surge from prior periods of solar expansion in China, the immediate trigger for which was a major policy shift in Beijing. In February, the government announced a market-based pricing system for solar and wind power that will replace feed-in tariffs (that is, guaranteed, above-market prices paid to renewable-energy generators to encourage investment). On 1 June 2025, the new pricing system went into effect; it is based on competitive bidding, and developers therefore rushed to connect projects before this date to take advantage of the more-generous above-market rates guaranteed by the tariff policy.

 

 

 

 

China’s renewable-energy reforms did not emerge in isolation. By late 2024, solar and wind capacity in China had surpassed coal-power capacity for the first time, but the power system had not adapted to this new balance and renewable curtailment – the forced reduction of output – was rising across provinces. The February overhaul was designed to ease these pressures and correct supply mismatches. Led jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, it aimed to cool investment incentives, make developers price risk more carefully and bring project developments back in line with the system’s capacity. Officials described the shift as moving the sector from ‘high-speed growth’ to ‘high-quality growth’.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/30 January 2026 - - -