With China expecting slower growth in regional solar markets such as Europe over the next few years, the government has set out to increase domestic demand during its 12th Five Year Plan period (2011-2015), and installed solar PV system capacity is targeted to hit 10GWp by 2015, according to Digitimes Research.

China is already the world's largest manufacturing center for solar power equipment. According to figures in the latest Digitimes Research report, production of silicon wafers and crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells will reach 14.8GW and 15.1GW respectively in 2011, accounting for more than 50% of total global production.

Five of the world's 10 largest solar cell factories are located in China, and China's GCL-Poly and Suntech are the two biggest players in the global PV silicon wafer and solar cell industries. As the cost of solar power systems continues to fall year on year, China-based manufacturers' market share will continue to increase, indicated Digitimes Research.

China's solar power market has grown rapidly since taking off in 2009. In 2010, the newly added capacity of solar PV systems reached 522MW, and will likely break through the 1.5GW barrier in 2011. China's Development Plan for New Energy Source Industries gives China's targets for total installed capacity in solar PV systems as 10GW by 2015, rising to 50GW by 2020.