Solar Energy China Analysis and Assessment

Chen et al. developed a comprehensive solar resource assessment system based on the GIS + MCDM method in 2019. This system was applied to the assessment of the potential of PV power generation in the countries under the “Belt and Road” initiative. The results showed that the PV potential of China is 100.8 PWh.

The missing radiation data over the western domain may lead to the underestimation of the total solar energy in China. Second, the application of 11 PV models reveals an uncertainty of 6–7 % in the estimate of PV power potential.

According to the research results, China's solar power sector must be developed for four significant reasons. First, most of China's energy generation system relies on fossil fuels, which not only harm the environment but are also quite expensive and put a tremendous strain on budgetary resources.

This decrease is evident over the Tibetan Plateau and northwestern China, where solar resources are currently abundant, but the change of annual mean PV potential is generally negligible over eastern and southern China.

With the increase of 1 W m −2 in solar radiation, the PV power potential in China shows a uniform enhancement of 1.22–1.41 kWh m −2 (Fig. 8 d). On the national scale, the PV power potential increases by 1.34 kWh m −2 (0.55 %) per unit 1 W m −2 solar radiation with almost linear responses to the changes in radiation (Fig. 8 a and Fig. S16).

Similarly, some researchers have previously estimated China's solar PV potential. Yu et al. (2023) utilized multi-criteria decision mode and random forest algorithm to calculate China's large-scale and distributed solar PV power generation potentials in prefecture-level cities.