China’s solar energy sector added 9.52 gigawatts of new capacity in April, a sharp step down from the 45 gigawatts installed in April 2025 as the market continued to adjust to a policy shift and a recent glut that drove record deployment.
The April total, while still large by global standards, came alongside a 25.6% year-on-year drop in solar cell production, showing that the world’s biggest manufacturer is no longer running at last year’s breakneck pace. China added 41.4 gigawatts in the first three months of 2026, while March installations plunged 56% from a year earlier to 8.9 gigawatts.
The setback in domestic activity comes after Chinese authorities ended export tax refunds on April 1, a move that changed the economics for equipment makers just as the market was already cooling. Even so, exports of solar equipment and components soared in March, and exports of solar cells and panels continued to surge in April.
That split tells the story of a sector under strain but still moving huge volumes abroad. Demand in Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe has stayed firm, helped in part by the oil and gas crisis, even as the home market works through the fallout from a wave of installations that left it overloaded.
CREA said the latest decline suggests China’s solar manufacturing sector is adjusting after last year’s exceptionally rapid deployment boom. For now, the country is still adding capacity at a pace that dwarfs most markets, but the direction is clear: the domestic surge has eased, and manufacturers are being pushed to adapt to a slower, less generous policy environment.
