National Bureau of Statistics: Solar cell production to increase by 54% in 2023

On February 29, the National Bureau of Statistics released the "Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on National Economic and Social Development in 2023", which disclosed a number of electricity data, including installed power capacity and energy consumption.

According to the data, in 2023, the output of solar cells (photovoltaic cells) will be 540 million kilowatts, an increase of 54.0%, and in 2023, the power generation of clean energy such as hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar power will be 3,190.6 billion kilowatt hours, an increase of 7.8% over the previous year.

At the end of 2023, the country's installed power generation capacity was 291965 10,000 kilowatts, an increase of 13.9% over the end of the previous year. Among them, the installed capacity of thermal power was 139032 10,000 kilowatts, an increase of 4.1 percent, the installed capacity of hydropower was 421.54 million kilowatts, an increase of 1.8 percent, the installed capacity of nuclear power was 56.91 million kilowatts, an increase of 2.4 percent, the installed capacity of grid-connected wind power was 441.34 million kilowatts, an increase of 20.7 percent, and the installed capacity of grid-connected solar power was 609.49 million kilowatts, an increase of 55.2 percent.

According to preliminary calculations, the total energy consumption in 2023 will be 5.72 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 5.7% over the previous year. Coal consumption increased by 5.6 percent, crude oil consumption by 9.1 percent, natural gas consumption by 7.2 percent, and electricity consumption by 6.7 percent. Coal consumption accounted for 55.3 percent of total energy consumption, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous year, while clean energy consumption such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar power accounted for 26.4 percent of total energy consumption, up 0.4 percentage points. The comprehensive energy consumption per unit of calcium carbide of key energy-consuming industrial enterprises decreased by 0.8%, the comprehensive energy consumption per unit of synthetic ammonia increased by 0.9%, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel increased by 1.6%, the comprehensive energy consumption per unit of electrolytic aluminum decreased by 0.1%, and the standard coal consumption per kilowatt-hour of thermal power generation decreased by 0.2%. According to preliminary estimates, after deducting the consumption of raw materials and non-fossil energy, the energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP [83] decreased by 0.5% over the previous year. The trading volume of carbon emission allowances [84] in the national carbon emission trading market was 212 million tons, with a turnover of 14.44 billion yuan.