China notched up close to 100GW of new PV in May, in the processes surpassing a terawatt of cumulative installed capacity, figures show.
On 23 June, China’s National Energy Administration released the latest statistics on the national power industry from January to May.
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The data shows that by the end of May, China’s accumulated installed capacity reached 3.61 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 18.8%. Among these, installed solar power capacity stood at 1.08 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 56.9%; installed wind power capacity reached 570 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%.
Driven by a rush to connect projects by the end of May when new energy market rules came into effect, China’s newly added PV capacity has set another record. From January to May 2025, newly installed PV capacity reached 197.85 million kilowatts (197.85GW), up 150% year-on-year. China’s cumulative PV capacity officially surpassed 1TW (108,445 million kilowatts).
Based on data calculations, in May alone, China’s newly added PV capacity hit 92.92 million kilowatts (92.92GW), surging 388.02% year-on-year (from 19.04GW in May 2024) and rising 105.48% month-on-month from April.
The data also shows that from January to May, the national average cumulative utilisation hours of power generation equipment were 1,249 hours, 132 hours fewer than in the same period last year. Nationwide, major power generation enterprises completed power source engineering investment of RMB257.8 billion, up 0.4% year-on-year. Power grid engineering investment amounted to RMB 204 billion, up 19.8% year-on-year .
