Longi chairman says Chinese rooftop solar could top 1,000 gigawatts

Bloomberg:

China’s buildings and rooftops have potential to host more than 1,000 gigawatts of solar power capacity — almost the same size as the entire existing global industry, according to the sector’s largest manufacturer. 

There’s theoretically enough space on residential, commercial and public properties to host that scale of generation capacity as costs drop and technologies advance, said Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longi Green Energy Technology Co. That would be enough to power at least 750 million homes during peak generation. 

Solar photovoltaic generation capacity rose about 27% to 1,223.5 gigawatts globally in 2022 and China accounts for more than a third of the total, according to BloombergNEF.

Reaching the 1,000 gigawatts level would require the industry to overcome hurdles such as grid constraints and a lack of energy storage capacity, meaning the estimate will likely remain theoretical in the near term. Still, Zhong is confident on China’s ability to rapidly develop such distributed renewable sources. 

[Staff Report]

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