China to double solar capacity to more than 40GW

China is attempting to restore growth in the weak solar power market by installing more solar panels domestically.

The glut of cheap solar panels on the market was caused by an overproduction by Chinese manufacturers over the past few years.

The oversupply has also led the USA and the European Union to file anti-dumping cases against major Chinese makers of solar panels.

Since mid-2010, however, China has been installing solar panels in homes and industrial sites at a faster pace to soak up excess supply. It intends to install solar panels capable of generating 7GW this year and 21GW by 2015 initially.

The massive oversupply, however, means that China must install 40GW by 2015 and 100GW by 2020. In order to increase installed capacity on this massive scale in such a short period of time, China is focusing on building large-scale, on-grid solar plants in the Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, with some projects capable of generating more than 1GW.