On Oct. 23, China’s National Energy Administration published statistics of the country’s power industry from January to September of 2017.
        According to the statistics, China’s newly installed generating capacity during this period was 93.39 million kilowatts, 30.98 million kilowatts of which being thermal power and 82.3 million kilowatts being hydropower. Statistic published by the China Electricity Council on Oct. 20 show that its newly installed solar power capacity from January to September was 42.31 million kilowatts, 19.77 million kilowatts more than the same period of last year, which accounted for 45.3 percent ̶ nearly half ̶ of all the newly installed capacity. Solar power has surpassed thermal power to be the largest newly installed source of energy of the country.
        It was only nine months ago when thermal power topped the country’s newly installed capacity. In the entire year of 2016, China’s newly installed capacity was 120.61 million kilowatts, 48.36 million kilowatts of which being thermal power. During the same year, the newly installed  capacity of photovoltaic power was 34.54 million kilowatts.
        After June 30th (the restructuring of the power industry) this year, photovoltaic power has significantly improved its generating capacity. Statistics of the National Energy Administration show that the country’s newly installed capacity in the first half of the year was 50.56 million kilowatts, with only 14.21 million kilowatts of thermal power, but 24.4 million kilowatts of photovoltaic power. Photovoltaic power tops the newly installed capacity with an advantage of 10 million kilowatts. The newly installed capacity of photovoltaic power in June was 13.15 million kilowatts, more than half of the total newly installed capacity in the first six months of the year.
        It was also in June this year that the China Electricity Council began to incorporate the data of photovoltaic power generation into the statistics of the country’s power industry. The statistics of the power industry from January to July show that in the first seven months of this year, its newly installed solar power capacity was 34.92million kilowatts. Together with the capacity of 77.42 million kilowatts by the end of 2016, its total installed photovoltaic power capacity reached 112 million kilowatts by the end of July this year. In other words, China has achieved the goal of the 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) Plan for Solar Energy Development ̶ a total installed photovoltaic power capacity of 110 million kilowatts by the end of 2020 ̶ ahead of schedule.