China is set to double its solar capacity to 2GW by the end of the year as the world's largest producer of modules encourages an increase in domestic installations through a new feed-in tariff.
It was reported in Reuters, which cited a local paper referring to a government think tank, that the government will now make rolling out its solar capacity a major priority. At the end of last year the country had around 900MW of installed capacity.
The report stated that China was set to produce 90,000 tonnes of polysilicon this year, which would account for 80 per cent of the country's market.
China has now surpassed the US as the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter and has begun investing heavily in the renewable sector as it seeks to reduce dependence on coal. For example, Anwell Digital Machinery recently received $110m from a local authority in the country for a new photovoltaic factory.