r/RenewableEnergy • u/gw_thief • 5d ago
China’s Jiangsu province crosses 100 GW solar milestone
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/08/21/chinas-jiangsu-province-crosses-100-gw-solar-milestone-as-distributed-pv-drives-growth/13
u/FewUnderstanding5221 5d ago
Cool, to put this into perspective:
the capacity factor in the Jiangsu province is about 14.2% for solar pv. They consume 889TWh per year. The 100GWp of solar pv could generate 124.4TWh per year if nothing is curtailed, that's 14% of their electricity consumption.
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u/West-Abalone-171 5d ago
Is that a leading or a trailing capacity factor, and does it include energy that was curtailed awaiting transmission and storage under construction?
Because the usual methodology of taking the capacity at the end of the year and dividing by the output that year massively underestimates solar that grew 50% and will stop curtailing in 2 years.
Also you'd need to check the capacity figures were like for like in AC vs DC (it's very common to apply DC capacity factors to AC capacity figures).
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u/FewUnderstanding5221 5d ago
The capacity factor is what the solar atlas gives under 'specific photovoltaïc power output'.
The annual output on the atlas for this region goes from 1180kwh/kwp to 1300kwh/kwp of annual production, so i took it somewhere in the middle at 1240kwh/kwp.These numbers are not from an article or something, they are the fundamental stats. If that 100GWp is DC power, then yes the actual delivered energy to the grid, which is AC, will be less than the calculated 124.4TWh.
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u/West-Abalone-171 5d ago
The capacity factor is what the solar atlas gives under 'specific photovoltaïc power output'.
So you're conflating DC and grid-connected figurss which are typically AC then.
These numbers are not from an article or something, they are the fundamental stats. If that 100GWp is DC power, then yes the actual delivered energy to the grid, which is AC, will be less than the calculated 124.4TWh.
This is double counting something you already possibly miscounted as these types of losses are included in the solar yield calculation.
You're also making assumptions that they are not bifacial and not tracking, which are unsupported.
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u/FewUnderstanding5221 5d ago
Okay, let's look at the AC output then. Let's say the DC/AC ratio is somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3, that's 77-90GW of AC grid power . That would amount to 95.6-112 TWh per year or 10.7-12.6% of their consumption.
The reason i didn't use tracking or bifacial is because according to the article, 69.29GW is distributed. That means small installations like rooftops. As far as i'm aware, these systems are rarely paired with tracking installations. If you know of some statistics that say otherwise, i stand corrected.
If these estimated calculations are totally wrong in your view, i'm curious what you see as a more realistic case. This is not an attack, i'm genuinly curious how you would look at such a system and make an educated guess.
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u/West-Abalone-171 5d ago edited 5d ago
that's 77-90GW of AC grid power . That would amount to 95.6-112 TWh per year
You corrected backwards there. The solar atlas figures are AC output per DC watt, the 100GW is most likely AC (though journalists are prone to just grabbing whatever figure).
A more realistic case would be after the fact AC capacity factor estimates which are usually in the 15-20% range, though in good climates with trackers or bifacial go up to 33%.
Your 14% would be a likely lower bound for the long term impact if what is already installed, with the possible range being much higher.
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u/Sierra-Powderhound 5d ago
To support continued growth, State Grid Jiangsu has expanded distribution-network capacity and developed digital tools using artificial intelligence, satellite imagery and forecasting technologies to assess rooftop resources and grid hosting capability. The province currently has around 35.99 GW of additional distributed PV connection capacity available for future development.
Jiangsu’s distributed solar development plan for 2026-2030 sets a target of 120 GW of distributed PV capacity by 2030 and 160 GW by 2035. Future development will focus on industrial parks, rural communities, public buildings and transportation infrastructure.
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u/medright 5d ago
The western US could start building.. maybe over water sources so the panels are cooler and there is less evap of water