East China's Zhejiang province's installed solar power capacity reached 68.9 GW by the end of July, pushing per-capita solar capacity above 1 kW and achieving the "solar for everyone" target.

The concept of "1 kW of solar per capita nationwide by 2035" was first proposed a decade ago in research by the National Energy Administration's science and technology department, aiming to make every citizen both a participant in and beneficiary of clean energy.

With Zhejiang's permanent population at 67.01 million at the end of 2025 and an average annual net increase of 413,000 people over the past three years, per-capita solar capacity in the province surpassed 1 kW in late July.

Zhejiang added 4.61 GW of new solar capacity in January-July this year, maintaining rapid growth. Unlike western provinces that rely primarily on utility-scale solar farms in desert and Gobi regions, Zhejiang has pursued a distributed model centered on industrial and commercial rooftops plus residential roofs. Distributed solar capacity reached 56.88 GW, accounting for 82.6% of the province's total.

The province has been exploring diverse application scenarios including solar-plus-industrial parks, solar-plus-port terminals, solar-plus-public buildings and solar-plus-rural housing. Power generation from new energy sources has climbed steadily alongside capacity expansion, with solar output reaching 41.4 TWh in January-July, up 16.3% year on year. Distributed solar contributed 33.6 TWh of that total.

Zhejiang plans to continue refining supporting policies for solar power, improving grid connection services, market trading mechanisms and rights protection across the full chain, while expanding solar coverage to support the province's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.