The problem of PV energy curtailment appeared in 2014 in the northwest of China, and a large-scale of solar energy curtailment happened in 2015 . The problem become more serious between 2016 and 2017.
China ’s creaking grid represents a major constraint to progress on its green energy transition. During the first four months of this year alone, China invested Rmb122.9bn ($17bn) in its power grid projects, a 24.9 per cent year-on-year increase.
Limitations of the construction of power grid As shown in Section 2, one of the characteristic of the China's solar energy distribution is its concentration in remote areas such as northwest China and Inner Mongolia. As far away from load demand center, the power grid construction is relatively weak in those areas.
The problem in the northwest of China is serious, especially in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Gansu province. The government has released a series of the policies and regulations to solve the solar energy curtailment.
As China has the world's largest installed capacity of solar energy, the development of the solar power generation in China will have a profound impact on the healthy development of the global solar power industry. Based on the China's experience, the following suggestions are given for the other countries:
By the end of 2023, China’s cumulative distributed PV installations hit 254GW, accounting for 42% of total PV capacity, marking an impressive achievement. Figure 1: 2013-2023 China PV new installed capacity. Source: National Energy Administration. Chart: PV Tech
