BEIJING: China raised its total grid-connected solar power capacity to 28.05 gigawatts (GW) in 2014, up 60 percent on the year, and aims to raise the total by more than half this year, the country's energy regulator said.
The figure is equivalent to about 2.1 percent of China's total power capacity of 1,360 GW at end 2014, according to National Energy Administration (NEA) figures, while wind power is about 7 percent of the total.
The NEA said in a notice that 10.6 GW of photovoltaic (PV) power was connected to the grid in 2014; amounting to a quarter of all new global capacity, as well as a third of China's total PV cell production over the period.
A separate report by China's official Xinhua news agency on Monday quoted Liang Zhipeng, the vice head of the NEA's renewable energy office, saying China would aim to connect another 15 GW of capacity to the grid in 2015.
Of China's total solar capacity, 23.38 GW consisted of solar power stations while 4.67 GW was in the form of distributed energy, the name given to solar panels installed by individual households and firms and connected to the grid.
China has been offering subsidies to distribute solar, which accounted for 19 percent of all new PV installations in 2014, the NEA said.
Total solar power generation reached 25 billion kilowatt hours, up by more than 200 percent compared to the previous year, the NEA said.
China aims to bring the share of non-fossil fuel energy in overall consumption to 15 percent by 2020, up from 11.1 percent in 2014, as it bids to ease its dependence on coal, a major source of pollution.
According to the outgoing head of the NEA, Wu Xinxiong, the share of coal in China's total energy use fell to 64.2 percent in 2014 from 66 percent at the end of 2013.
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