China’s recent investment in solar power has fast-tracked its renewable energy objectives and could help to slow down climate change.
A new report has found solar panel installations are growing at a remarkable rate in China.
So much so, that demand in the country could boost global capacity by 85% within two years.
The surge in green power, which also includes wind, is seen by experts as a potential game changer in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
However, China’s reliance on coal remains an issue.
The country’s greenhouse gas emissions are still rising with coal accounting for around two-thirds of its total.
The latest research from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) is encouraging though.
China is on course to meet its 2030 green energy targets five years ahead of schedule.
Large-scale solar panel projects have been key to this success.
The total operating capacity of solar power has been growing at a significant rate in China since 2012.
A further doubling of capacity by 2025 will provide the country with an ample supply of renewables, even as it expands coal as a backup energy source.
Solar capacity is set to jump from around 225 Gigawatts (GW) to more than 600GW after all scheduled installations are complete.
The increase in prospective capacity is almost double that planned across the whole of Europe.
The report’s author, Martin Weil, now expects China’s carbon emissions to peak prior to 2030.
He is also hopeful that coal plants won’t play a significant role in providing power moving forward.
He concluded: “One hopes that they’re deployed in a way that puts the ratio of renewables to coal as high as possible.”
Investment in high-capacity battery storage for solar would enable China to adopt a swifter transition to renewables.
