Photograph by Toby Smith, Reportage by Getty Images
In Gansu Province, two people walk amid an array of solar panels designed to soak up the Gobi Desert's abundant sunshine.
China is only sixth or seventh among nations in solar capacity, but its installations are growing at breakneck pace, especially after a new feed-in tariff to encourage development. Installations doubled last year, and this year the country plans to add three gigawatts—double its current solar capacity.
By 2015, China aims to have installed solar generating capacity of at least 15 gigawatts. That goal, announced in December, ratcheted up the nation's previous solar target by 50 percent.
China already is the world leader in the manufacture of solar panels, with 51 percent of the market. The nation that developed solar technology in the 1950s, the United States, has about 6 percent of the market. And U.S. photovoltaic manufacturers are under pressure as their Chinese competitors drive down the price of the product.
President Barack Obama's administration is to weigh in next month on whether to take up the cause of a coalition of seven U.S. solar manufacturers that charge the Chinese producers of dumping large volumes of unfairly subsidized photovoltaic cells at undercut prices in an attempt to dominate the American market.
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