China terminated, revoked registrations for, or canceled more than 1,000 long-idle solar projects during 2026.

More than 1,000 long-idle photovoltaic projects in China were terminated, had their registrations revoked, or had their accounts canceled during 2026. The affected projects had held development quotas for extended periods without starting construction or had failed to proceed by required deadlines.

The report said many projects had completed paperwork but had no equipment or construction crews on site. Reserved grid-connection capacity consequently remained unused even where other developers sought access.

The article identified hoarding of project quotas and grid-access capacity as a possible motivation for some inactive developments, alongside waiting for costs to decline or following the sector without adequate preparation. It called for both the removal of inactive projects and a continuing management mechanism, but did not provide a province-by-province list or total megawatt capacity.