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In one of the recent exciting updates, the cumulative installed solar capacity in China has gone past 1 TW, as per the National Energy Administration (NEA). By the end of May 2025 installed solar capacity in China had already reached 1.08 TW, equivalent to 1080 GW, which is almost 57% more year over year.
Notably, the NEA data shows total power generation capacity was at 3.61 TW by the end of May 2025. This was an increase of almost 19% from May 2024. Solar happened to be the fastest-growing segment, which was driven by record installations in the first five months of this year.
It is well to be noted that right from January to May this year, the new solar installations totaled almost 198 GW, which was up by a massive 388% from the same period in 2024. In May 2025 alone, China went on to add almost 93 GW of new capacity, which was over 105% from April 25, and apparently it was also the highest monthly figure on record.
Analysts go on to attribute this growth to favorable policies from the government, which include support towards distributed solar along with mechanisms that allow renewable energy to go ahead and participate in electricity market trading.
All these measures have triggered a kind of rush so as to complete the installations, much ahead of the anticipated policy changes in the second half of 2025.
It is worth noting that the installed solar capacity in China had reached its first 1 GW in 2010. At that point in time, it was under the Golden Sun program, which, in a way, launched the distributed solar segment of the country. After the trade tensions that cropped up between China and the United States as well as Europe in 2011-12, Beijing transitioned towards domestic support, thereby mushrooming utility projects in the Northwest and also pushing for cumulative capacity to 10 GW by mid-2013.
The top runner program thereafter boosted the rolloutby way of promoting technological innovation as well as efficiency. By June 2017, the total installed capacity went past 100 GW, which was a tenfold increase in just a matter of four years. Eight years later, China has reached 1 TW of installed solar capacity, which is an unmatched global landmark. However, there are analysts who warn that the demand could as well slow in the second half of 2025, since policy-driven spikes happen to ease out. There are many market research firms that have issued certain cautious forecasts, thereby citing a very likely drop within the momentum of installations.
