Environment > China's Solar Program - some good news, and some bad news

 

China sets new solar record – data

May installations jumped fourfold year-on-year amid looming policy and trade pressures, according to official data

©  Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

China set a new record for monthly installed solar power capacity in May, according to official data.

The National Energy Administration reported on Monday that China installed 93 gigawatts of solar panels in May – more than any other country did over the whole of 2024, according to Bloomberg. The figure is more than quadruple the capacity added during the same month last year and surpasses the previous monthly high of 71 gigawatts set last December.

The surge comes as developers rush to complete projects ahead of new regulatory changes that are expected to significantly reduce renewable energy prices.

May’s record followed strong installations in April, bringing China’s total solar additions for the first five months of the year to 198 gigawatts (GW) – averaging more than 1GW per day.

China typically sees a spike in solar installations in December, but developers accelerated activity this year ahead of anticipated policy changes. A regulation that took effect on May 1 made it more difficult to connect rooftop solar systems to the grid, while another policy starting June 1 removed pricing protections that had previously ensured profits for solar projects.

READ MORE: US slaps tariffs of up to 3,521% on China-linked solar imports

Analysts expect the new policies to moderate the pace of installations over the summer which would increase pressure on Chinese solar manufacturers, who have been grappling with overcapacity and falling prices for more than a year.

All major Chinese solar equipment firms posted losses in the first quarter of 2025, citing weak prices and rising trade tensions following the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House.

Trump imposed broad tariffs on imports from over 90 countries, including China, in early April. Beijing retaliated, leading Trump to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, while China responded with duties of up to 125% on US products.

The two sides reached a tentative truce in Geneva on May 12, agreeing to a 90-day pause on further hikes and to maintain a 10% baseline tariff. However, tensions resurfaced earlier this month amid mutual accusations of violating the deal.

Earlier, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association called for urgent consolidation in the sector, warning that unchecked expansion and price wars were driving the industry into a “race to the bottom.”

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China Clamps Down on Epidemic of Online Gaming

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In 2019, China restricted online gaming to 1.5 hours per day. Now they have significantly reduced that. A lot of teenage boys will be very upset with this news.

China limits video gaming time to 3 hours per week

By Zarrin Ahmed

A man plays a video game on his mobile phone in Beijing on Saturday. Online games in China are extremely popular

among young people and children, with many people being gaming addicted. Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA-EFE

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- China announced Monday that children will only be allowed to play video games for 1 hour on Fridays, weekends, and holidays.

Gaming platforms can only offer online gaming to minors between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on those days, according to the National Press and Publication Administration (NAAP). The new restrictions limit a previous rule that allowed children to play video games for 1.5 hours per day.

A majority of parents expressed their concern over minors' indulging in online gaming, which led to the previous restriction enacted in 2019, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

"Recently, many parents have reported that some teenagers' indulging in online games have seriously affected their normal study life and physical and mental health, and even caused a series of social problems," Xinhua stated in a Monday press release.

Along with the time slots, China will implement a real-name verification system where users will present their identification. Regulation of the new measures will also go into effect.

The NAAP urged families, schools, and social sectors to assume the responsibility of guardianship and provide environments conducive to "the healthy growth of minors."

Jail Bankers Who Caused 2008 Financial Crisis, says ex-PM Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown has launched a scathing attack on bankers over the 2008 financial crisis

© Neil Hall / Reuters

Millionaire bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crisis should be stripped of their bonuses and sent to prison, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said. He warned bankers have not learnt a thing and are still playing fast and loose.

The former Labour leader, who was Tony Blair’s chancellor before replacing him as PM in 2007, has torn into wealthy bankers and revealed he was preparing to quit Downing Street when the banking crisis was at its height.

The ex-PM, toppled in 2010 when David Cameron formed a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, had called for tougher regulations at a special G20 summit in London. None have been implemented, however.

In an autobiography released next week – entitled My Life, Our Times – Brown says history will repeat itself if action is not taken.

“If bankers who act fraudulently are not put in jail with their bonuses returned, assets confiscated and banned from future practice, we will only give a green light to similar risk-laden behavior in new forms,” he writes.

“Little has changed since the promise in 2009 that we would bring finance to heel. The banks that were deemed ‘too big to fail’ are now even bigger than they were."

“Similarly... some regulators freely confess that risks have morphed and migrated out of the formal banking system and if the next crisis came they would still not know what is owed and by whom and to whom. 2009 has proved to be the turning point at which history failed to turn.”

The book details the time he, along with his chancellor Alistair Darling, arranged a rescue package for some UK banks.

In a revealing personal insight into the life of a prime minister, Brown writes about a time he instructed his family to pack their bags, convinced he would be forced to stand down if the rescue package failed and he had to quickly flee Downing Street.

At the time taxpayers’ money was invested in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HBOS and Lloyds to save them from going under. Brown, 66, says foreign countries have been quick to prosecute bankers when they fail – but the UK has resisted.

Not sure which countries he's referring to, but it certainly isn't the USA. Canada had no bank failures because we have tough regulations governing our banks.

The former politician is especially scathing of Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin, the former chief executive of RBS, who Brown says drove the bank into the ground and gambled with the public’s cash while living a luxurious lifestyle.

He also attacks Barclays for what he says was a decision to seek a state bailout from Qatar and the UAE, while attacking rival banks who were helped by the public purse in Britain.

“In doing so, they [Barclays] made it far more difficult to explain to the British public that this was a widespread banking crisis and not just an emergency faced by one or two banks and, by not telling the full truth, they hampered our ability to persuade legislators around the world of the need for far-reaching reform.”

That was probably the idea all along.