Solar power development – US vs China

November 6, 2025
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1. Installed capacity

  • China’s cumulative installed solar capacity is very large: in 2023 it reached ~ 610 GW (gigawatts).
  • By 2024, China’s capacity was reported as ~ 888 GW.
  • The US had a much smaller base: around ~ 139 GW by end of 2023.
  • A comparison graphic shows China at ~393 GW in 2022 vs the US at ~113 GW in that year.

Conclusion : China’s solar PV installed capacity is about 4 to 5 times (or more) that of the US.

2. Annual additions / growth of solar power capacity

  • China added around 216.9 GW of new solar capacity in 2023.
  • In 2024 China added ~278 GW.
  • The US added much less in comparison: e.g., around 24.8 GW in 2023.
  • Growth rate wise: China’s year-on-year increase in capacity remains very high (e.g., >45% in one dataset).
  • China accounted for ~55 % of global new solar capacity in 2024.
  • The US accounted for ~8 % of new global solar in that year.
  • According to some data, China’s total solar capacity by 2024 (~887,930 MW) is about five times that of the US (~177,470 MW) in that year.

Conclusion: China is adding new solar PV capacity far more rapidly than the US, both in absolute GW and in growth rate terms.

3. Supply chain and manufacturing

  • China dominates the global solar manufacturing supply chain: producing roughly 80 % of solar panels (modules, wafers etc).
  • US manufacturing is growing (for example module manufacturing capacity in US increased from ~7 GW in 2020 to ~56 GW by May 2025) but remains far behind

Conclusion: China has a strong vertical integration and scale advantage in solar manufacturing; this is a structural advantage supporting large deployment.

The important talking points:

The US is making strong progress in solar, but compared to China the scale is still much smaller.

China’s combination of large domestic demand, manufacturing scale, supportive policies, and rapid build-out gives it a sizable lead.

If one is looking at how many GW of solar each country has, how many TWh of electricity are generated, or how fast they are growing, China outpaces the US significantly.

For future trends: growth in the US may accelerate (given policy incentives, cost declines, technology improvements) but catching up China’s massive lead will take considerable investment and capacity.

For anyone comparing solar strategies, cost-structure, deployment speed, grid and storage integration, supply-chain security, each country has different strengths and challenges.