Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW. But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% year-on-year to 9GW, while new capacity in April totalled 10GW, a 79% drop compared to a year earlier, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of official data. Domestic uncertainty The lower pace in 2026 had been anticipated by analysts. In previous years, massive solar installations were driven by strong policy support for renewables, including a fixed-price tariff for generators. In February 2025, the government announced that new solar and wind projects would instead be financed through a new “contract for difference” (CfD)-style system. Under the new system, power from a certain amount of renewable capacity will be purchased for a fixed “strike price”, which to date has been far lower than previous guaranteed tariffs. Further projects will need to secure their own contracts on the open market. While the new system is posing challenges for developers in the short term, it is part of a longer-term shift towards market-driven pricing for renewables, which has already made them cheaper than coal. The change led to a rush of new project installations ahead of the June 2025 cut-off date, so that they could fall under the old fixed-price regime. New solar additions totalled 45GW in April 2025 and…
