(Yicai) Dec. 15 -- China’s installed photovoltaic capacity surged almost two-and-a-half-fold during the months of January to October from a year ago, the fastest growth rate in the past ten years, as a sharp drop in raw material prices boosts orders, the honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association said.

China installed over 140 gigawatts of newly-added PV systems from January to October, Wang Bohua said at the ongoing 2023 PV Industry Annual Conference in Suqian, eastern Jiangsu province. 

Centralized PV installations in the first three quarters grew rapidly as large wind and solar power projects need to be connected to the grid by the end of the year, Wang said. Year-on-year growth of newly installed capacity doubled most months and in March it surged five times. In the first 10 months, centralized solar installations soared three-and-a-half fold from a year earlier to 61.7 GW. 

While newly installed distributed systems surged 90 percent to 67.1 GW, driven by a sharp drop in raw material prices and lower costs amid the large installations’ drive, Wang said. Of the distributed systems, household PV installations almost doubled.

Between January and October, China produced 1.14 million tons of polysilicon, 460 GW of solar wafers, 404 GW of solar cells and 367 GW of PV panels, Wang said. The production of all of these products increased 70 percent or more from the year before, he added.

Silicon wafer exports surged 90 percent in the first 10 months from a year earlier to 55.7 GW, that of solar cells soared 72 percent to 32.4 GW and that of PV panels jumped 34 percent to 177.6 GW.

But despite the substantial growth, the export value dipped 2.4 percent to USD43 billion due to the big drop in prices, Wang said. Solar panel prices, for instance, halved, he said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor