China: Solar energy overtakes coal in installed capacity

China is no longer expanding solar power as massively as last year. However, the increase remains significant and is causing a change at the top of the largest types of energy production.

Solar systems have replaced coal as the largest source of electricity in China for the first time. As the country's energy authority announced, photovoltaic systems were the largest type of electricity generation at the end of July, with 1,286 gigawatts of installed capacity. The installed capacity of coal-fired power plants was 1,285 gigawatts. According to Chinese state television, solar power accounted for 31.5 percent of the total installed power generation capacity.

China has been pushing ahead with the expansion of electricity generation from solar energy for years. Solar cells line entire areas of the country, especially in the west and northwest of the country.

Despite its ambitions in the field of renewable energy, China is also one of the largest emitters of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which is also due to coal production. Electricity from coal is cheap for China and serves as a backstop for the country in energy crises. China also uses the process of coal gasification to produce chemicals that would otherwise require petroleum - a raw material for which China is dependent on imports.

China reached the solar power generation milestone at a time when the expansion of photovoltaic systems in the country is slowing. As the energy authority also announced, the People's Republic added 62 percent less solar capacity between January and July of this year than in the same period last year. The background is a change in standards that abolished price guarantees for solar power projects from last summer and from now on allowed market forces to determine the price.