Climate change impact on photovoltaic power potential in China based on CMIP6 models

China has the largest worldwide cumulative installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity, which is expected to be 1300 GW in 2050. Industrial production, population explosion and fossil fuel combustion would reduce the surface solar radiation that could be received by PV panels. However, it is still a problem to explore the integrated effects of socio-economic and air pollutant emissions on PV power potential in China. In this study, climate change impact on PV power potential in 2023–2100 were assessed using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) model, combining Shared Socio-economic Pathway (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The validation results with ground-based surface solar radiation measurements collected from 17 China Meteorological Administration (CMA) stations showed that the Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model version 2–0 (MRI-ESM2-0) attained a better performance with mean correlation coefficients (R), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.85, 35.80 Wm−2 and 29.37 Wm−2, respectively. Then, the MRI-ESM2-0 model was selected to analyze the spatial and temporal variations in PV power potential. PV power potential decreased significantly in SSP585 ranging from 192.71 Wm−2 to 189.96 Wm−2 in 2023–2100 corresponding to the growing resource intensity and fossil fuel dependency. In contrast, if China continues on the path of sustainable and low-carbon development and keeps temperature rise to about 1.5 °C by 2100, PV power potential will increase by 1.36–5.90 Wm−2. Meanwhile, the effects of climatological factors on PV power potential were analyzed by Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) method. Results indicated that surface solar radiation had the highest contribution of >50 %, and the contribution of aerosols and cloud cover was about 20 %. This study is conducive to the full utilization of solar resources and has important implications for the future formulation of solar energy policy in China.