China Added More Solar Panels in 2023 Than US Did In Its Entire History

  • Nation added 217 gigawatts of solar and 76 of wind last year
  • China accounted for more than half of global additions: BNEF

A floating solar farm in Huainan, China.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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China installed more solar panels in 2023 than any other nation has built in total, adding to a massive renewable energy fleet that’s already leading the world by a wide margin.

The country added 216.9 gigawatts of solar last year, blowing away its previous record of 87.4 gigawatts from 2022, the National Energy Administration said in a statement. That’s more than the entire fleet of 175.2 gigawatts in the US, the world’s second-biggest solar market, according to BloombergNEF estimates.