China's cumulative solar PV capacity surged from 0.9 GW in 2010 to 680 GW in 2025, lifting its share of world installations from 2.3% to 36.8%, IRENA

China Data Portal (2026). Retrieved from https://chinadata.live/data/solar-capacity-china-vs-world/. From China China's solar photovoltaic journey from 2010 to 2025 spans both the dataset's low point — 0.

9 GW of installed capacity in China itself — and its high point, a global total of 1,850 GW in 2025, according to figures compiled by IRENA and the National Energy Administration.

Top of the chart: 1,850 GW world total in 2025 The 2025 global solar PV fleet reached 1,850 GW , more than doubling the 714 GW recorded just five years earlier. China accounted for 680 GW of that, or 36.

8% , while the rest of the world added 1,170 GW .

The gap between China and the rest of the world continued to narrow in percentage terms, however, as installations spread rapidly across India, Europe, and the United States. The other end: 0.

9 GW in China, 2010 In 2010, China's solar PV capacity was a negligible 0.9 GW , representing just 2.3% of the world's 40 GW. At the time, Germany, Spain, and Japan dominated the global ranking.

A Chinese energy planner looking at that number would have seen a sector that contributed almost nothing to power generation, relying almost entirely on imported polysilicon and cells.

What separates the two The 15-year chasm was bridged by a combination of aggressive feed-in tariffs, massive domestic manufacturing scale-up, and plunging module costs that made solar the cheapest new electricity source in most markets.

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