China to hit solar target early: JinkoSolar exec

NEW YORK, USA : A boom in solar power installations in China could mean the country reaches its new target for the renewable power source two years ahead of plan, an executive from JinkoSolar Holding Co said on Wednesday.

In December, Beijing raised the 2015 target for solar installations by 50 percent to 15 gigawatts, a level that would make it one of the top solar markets in the world.

"These targets may be reached in 2013," Longgen Zhang, JinkoSolar's chief financial officer, told the Jefferies Global Cleantech Conference.

China is the world's leading exporter of solar panels, but its domestic market has long been far smaller then global leaders, including Germany, which last year installed a record 7.5 gigawatts.

China's solar installations totalled about 1 gigawatt, or about the capacity of a nuclear reactor, at the end of 2010, and the country is expected to have added about two gigawatts in 2011.

Beijing has said it expected to add about 3 gigawatts of solar power per year from 2012, but Zhang said the rush to build new projects there could mean between 5-7 gigawatts will get built this year alone.