Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-07-24 Origin: Site
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, renewable energy in China has entered a new development stage featuring expanding scale, improving quality and achieving reliable substitution. As the fastest-growing and most widely applied core component of the renewable energy system, photovoltaic (PV) power serves as a key starting point for implementing the 15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development, constructing a new power system, and meeting the long-term development targets for 2030. Based on the top-level framework of the Plan, namely "one main line, two development directions, three principles, four major targets, five key projects, six institutional improvements and seven priority tasks", the PV industry will embrace a critical opportunity to shift from scale expansion to quality upgrading, and from single power generation to diversified comprehensive utilization.
The Plan defines expanding scale, improving quality and achieving reliable substitution as the core main line. Over the past decade, China’s PV sector has achieved leapfrog growth in installed capacity, making China the world’s largest PV market. Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the development logic of the industry has undergone profound changes. Instead of simply pursuing newly installed capacity, the sector will continuously expand energy supply while addressing the inherent intermittency and volatility of PV power.
The core proposition for PV development in the next stage is to enhance its capacity for safely and reliably substituting fossil energy, enabling new energy to evolve from "establishing a presence" to "delivering dependable performance". In line with the 2030 development targets specified in the Plan, the total installed capacity of wind and solar power will exceed 2.8 billion kW, with annual power generation surpassing 4 trillion kWh. The average credible output of wind and solar power nationwide will steadily rise, and their power generation share during evening peak hours will reach over 20%. This means PV project development must be coordinated with supporting regulation resources, layout optimization, and peak power supply capacity improvement to support the safe and stable operation of the power system.
The Plan identifies two development directions: prioritizing power generation and pursuing breakthroughs in non-power utilization, forming a dual growth pattern for the PV industry.
China will continue to scale up the consumption of PV power and steadily raise the share of clean electricity in total power consumption. PV deployment follows a dual-drive model of large-scale bases and distributed systems. On the one hand, relying on the Key Project of New Energy Bases in Sandy, Gobi and Desert Regions, China will advance the construction of large wind and solar bases in the Three-North regions, and launch demonstration projects for PV-based desert restoration and 100% green power transmission. On the other hand, China will vigorously develop industrial, commercial and residential distributed PV, promote the popularization of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) in industrial parks. Alongside the planning of integrated water-wind-solar bases, PV power will complement hydropower and wind power to smooth output fluctuations. In addition, offshore PV will be developed alongside offshore wind power bases to unlock energy potential in coastal tidal flats and offshore areas.
Non-power utilization represents an important new growth track highlighted in the Plan. For a long time, renewable energy development has centered on power generation, while non-power utilization remains a weak link. The Plan proposes expanding diversified local conversion capacity of renewable energy. PV power will no longer be limited to grid-connected power generation. Supported by the Major Project for Large-scale Non-Power Utilization of Renewable Energy, China will vigorously develop green hydrogen production via PV, wind-solar coupled industrial heating, and PV-driven raw material production. PV-generated green hydrogen can serve as decarbonized industrial feedstock and transport fuel; PV heating can help energy-intensive enterprises replace coal-fired boilers, enabling PV energy to penetrate deep into industrial end-users and breaking the bottleneck of over-reliance on grid consumption.
Integrated Development: Advance integrated development of upstream and downstream PV sectors and cross-industry collaboration. On the manufacturing side, continuous technological upgrading will take place across industrial chains including solar cells, modules, inverters and energy storage systems. On the application side, composite projects such as "PV + energy storage", "PV + agriculture", "PV + desert restoration" and "PV + transportation" will be developed, transforming PV from standalone power generation facilities into comprehensive energy platforms.
Diversified Coordination: Facilitate coordination among power sources, power grids and essential factors. Large-scale PV bases will be developed together with power transmission channels; distributed PV deployment will be matched with distribution network upgrading. The layout of new energy, energy storage and regulating power sources will be coordinated to tackle challenges in PV power generation, transmission and consumption.
Efficient & Orderly Progress: Improve the market competition mechanism for the PV industry to foster sound development. Uncontrolled expansion of low-efficiency production capacity will be restrained. High-efficiency new-generation PV technologies such as TOPCon and BC will be promoted, while backward equipment will be phased out. PV development will balance resource endowments, ecological protection and power consumption to avoid disorderly project launches.
Total Energy Target: PV power will contribute the largest incremental volume to support the national target of renewable energy consumption reaching approximately 1.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2030.
Power Generation Target: Together with wind power, PV will deliver the total installed capacity target of over 2.8 billion kW, continuously boosting annual power generation and optimizing the national power supply mix.
Non-Power Utilization Target: PV will participate in scaling up non-power utilization of renewable energy, with large-scale deployment of PV-powered hydrogen production, PV heating and other models.
Reliable Substitution Target: Over the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will add more than 300 million kW of peak power capacity from renewable energy. PV systems paired with energy storage, virtual power plants and adjustable load resources will improve credible output and enhance power supply support during evening peak hours, enabling PV to effectively substitute coal-fired peak power.
New Energy Bases in Sandy, Gobi and Desert Regions: PV serves as the core carrier of these bases. Large-scale PV projects in desert and Gobi areas will combine energy development with ecological restoration, realizing win-win outcomes for energy production and land management, and constructing long-distance high-capacity green power transmission corridors.
Integrated Water-Wind-Solar Bases: In river basins of southwest China, PV power will operate jointly with hydropower. The regulating capacity of hydropower will smooth PV power fluctuations and improve the stability of overall power delivery.
Offshore Wind Power Bases: Research and development of nearshore and floating offshore PV will be carried out, building comprehensive offshore wind-solar energy bases.
Project for Improving Reliable Substitution Capacity of Renewable Energy Power: New wind and solar power stations will be equipped with energy storage. Integrated PV and energy storage projects will be developed in an orderly manner alongside pumped storage hydropower to enhance the adjustability of PV power.
Large-scale Non-Power Utilization Project for Renewable Energy: Industrial bases for green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol powered by PV will be planned, and demonstration parks for non-power PV utilization will be constructed.
The Plan outlines six institutional improvements to remove institutional barriers for the PV industry: revising the Renewable Energy Law, implementing policies on consumption responsibility weight, introducing supporting measures for high-quality new energy development, rolling out plans for deep-sea offshore power bases, improving market rules adapted to high penetration of renewable energy, and strengthening guarantee mechanisms for land, grid connection and other key factors. Moving forward, the policy system covering PV grid connection, green power trading, capacity pricing, energy storage matching and ecological land use will be continuously refined, driving the PV industry to shift from policy-driven to market-driven growth.
First, expand PV power supply through diversified development of large-scale bases, offshore PV and distributed PV.
Second, improve the reliable substitution capacity of PV power by vigorously advancing integrated PV-energy storage projects and aggregating distributed PV resources via virtual power plants.
Third, explore new non-power utilization scenarios for PV, and commercialize PV green hydrogen production and wind-solar industrial heating.
Fourth, expand consumption of PV power by promoting green power procurement and self-consumption of on-site PV power.
Fifth, consolidate the competitive advantages of China’s PV industrial chain, conduct continuous research on high-efficiency solar cells, long-duration energy storage and new-type modules, and sustain China’s global competitiveness in the PV sector.
Sixth, improve long-term mechanisms for PV development, and optimize policies on grid connection, land use and financial support.
Seventh, deepen international cooperation in the PV sector, promoting the global export of PV products, technologies and standards.
Towards the 15th Five-Year Plan period and up to 2030, the development logic of the PV industry has undergone profound changes. In the short term, large-scale bases, distributed PV and offshore PV will sustain installed capacity growth. In the long run, core industry competition will center on adjustable controllability, diversified non-power applications and technological innovation across industrial chains. Guided by the 15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development, photovoltaic power will evolve from a mere electricity supplier to a fundamental energy carrier supporting the new power system and driving deep industrial decarbonization, providing solid support for building a powerful energy nation and steadily advancing the substitution of fossil energy.
