China installs 60 GW of solar capacity in Q1

Rooftop solar accounted for the majority of the additional capacity.

China has reported its highest first-quarter solar capacity addition, with 60 gigawatts (GW) installed in the first three months of the year.

According to Rystad, rooftop solar accounted for 60%, or 36 GW of that total, marking the largest quarterly capacity addition for distributed photovoltaic (PV) in China’s history. This was thanks to the urgency to meet policy deadlines set by the National Energy Administration’s (NEA) new guidelines, which were released in October last year and put into effect this May.

“The directive encouraged self-consumption of distributed solar projects to ease grid congestion issues, improve grid stability and cut reliance on centralised power plants,” the report said.

Rystad expects a steady growth in China’s annual solar PV capacity until 2030. Rooftop PV installations will also continue into the second quarter of the year, pushing total distributed solar capacity additions for 2025 to 130 GW, comprising 92 GW from commercial and industrial (C&I) projects and 38 GW from residential projects.

“Whilst the impact on the installation rush for utility-scale PV is expected to be lower, this year is still on track to set a new record, with 167 GW of new utility projects expected,” the report read, noting the growth will be driven by large-scale project pipeline and accelerated efforts of provincial governments to meet targets under China's 14th Five-Year Plan, which concludes this year.