China could manufacture 25 percent more solar panels in 2017

China’s solar industry is expected to produce 25% more panels in 2017 than last year.

Wang Bohua, the secretary general of China’s photovoltaic industry association, told an industry gathering that he expects China to produce solar panels with a combined capacity of 60 gigawatts (GW) this year – up from 48GW in 2016.

This is driven by domestic sales and demand from the United States and emerging markets, he said. Meanwhile, five industry groups in Germany say they expect to install 900 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power collectively this year, reports another Reuters article.

So far this year, 626MW of new capacity has been added, putting the industry on course to exceed the 818MW installed in 2016.

The rate of expansion could mean the industry will beat government targets of 6,500 MW for 2020, the groups said. And finally, the third Reuters piece says that India has identified 5.5GW of inefficient coal-fired power plants that will be retired.

The plants, which are more than 25 years old, will be taken offline in a phased manner on the basis of their “inefficiency and un-economic operation,” India’s Power Minister said.