THE value of China’s total solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing output topped US$31 billion in the first half of 2015, the industry ministry said yesterday, as the push for renewable energy continues in the world’s largest solar PV producer.

    In the first half of 2014, the total output value surpassed 150 billion yuan (US$23.44 billion).

    China has committed to halting the rise in CO2 within the next 15 years to help build a United Nations climate deal in late 2015.

    Total output value surpassed 200 billion yuan in the January-June period, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement on its website.

    China also exported US$7.7 billion worth of silicon wafers, batteries and modules in the first half of 2015, compared to US$8.2 billion during the same period of last year.

    It produced 74,000 tons of crystalline silicon, up 15.6 percent compared to the same period last year, and produced 4.5 billion silicon wafers, up slightly, the statement said.

    Domestic solar companies, some already heavily indebted, will need to raise many billions of dollars this year to fund a big expansion in capacity, a major test of investor confidence in a sector hit hard by the global financial crisis.

    China increased its domestic solar power capacity by 7.73 gigawatts (GW) in the first six months of 2015, the country’s top energy regulator said in July, leaving new installations short of the half-way mark for this year’s target as growth slowed in the second quarter.

    The government aims to raise the share of non-fossil fuels to 15 percent of its total energy mix by 2020 from around 11 percent at the end of 2014 as part of efforts to ease its dependence on coal and meet its climate pledges to the United Nations.

    (SD-Agencies)