Chinese PV capacity additions ballooned 22% in 1Q18

9.6GW of solar was installed.

According to the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA), a total of 9,650 MW of solar PV capacity was installed in China during the first quarter of 2018, which is a 22% increase compared with same period of 2017. New capacities encompass 7,680 MW of distributed solar capacity (+217% on the first quarter of 2017) and over 1,950 MW of utility-scale capacity (-64% over the same period of 2017).

This capacity addition exceeds forecasts by the Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (7,500 GW). Besides, the NEA also reports improvements on grid curtailment issues and in particular in the Gansu and Xinjiang regions.

Despite the increase in quarterly installations, the AECEA still expects full-year installations in China to range between 40 and 45 GW in 2018, much lower than in 2017 (53 GW).

This article was originally published by Enerdata.