Accelerating the penetration of photovoltaics (PV) oriented renewables is a vital mainstay in climate mitigation. Along with continuous growth of PV generation in the power system, PV costs have been rapidly declining. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is commonly applied to cost accounting of energy, while neglecting the specific cost compositi. PhotovoltaicsSystem levelized cost of electricityEconomic feasibilityCompetitive potentialIn response to climate change, the structure of energy production and consumption has gone through a rapid and thorough transformation, worldwide, where the portion of renewable energy has been constantly increasing significantly. Owing to fast and comprehensive advancement of technologies and techniques, and vigorous emergence and speedy development of energy internet, solar photovoltaics (PV) has become one of the cleanest, smartest and most economical means of power generations. In China, the decarbonization capacity of energy system has been continuously strengthened through expanding and optimizing the renewables market dominated by PV technology. By 2022, China's cumulative PV installed capacity has exceeded 390 GW, with an annual increasing rate of 28.1 %, to result in China becoming the world's leading installer of PV projects [3,4]. In recent years, renewables development planning and quota tasks have been actively carried out in various provinces of China, and provincial PV installed capacity has been steadily increasing, as shown in Fig. 1.Facilitated by continual improvement of battery efficiency and innovation of development models in PV industry, the costs of PV generation have been continuously decreasing and demonstrated considerable commercial competitiveness. In especial, the costs of silicon batteries and PV modules. When planning for green transformation of the power system, cost is usually the primary consideration. In previous studies, LCOE was often applied to quantify the internal electricity costs of renewables, including measuring the upfront cost expenditures of PV installation, estimating operation and maintenance costs, and comparing the generation costs of PV systems in different solar radiation areas. In addition, the outstanding advantage of PV generation in reducing carbon footprint further fosters its competitiveness and substitution for traditional energy forms. For instance, the priority of thermal plants replacement, the decarbonization process of the power system, and the risk of thermal plants being replaced by PV stations [17,18] have all become research hotspots. Beneficial exploration from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives shed light on the bright prospects of PV technology.Overall, numerous studies are largely optimistic about the status of practicability and feasibility of PV generation [,, ], but little effort has been made on exploring the future development trajectory of PV costs related to improvement potential and scale effects. Like other emerging technologies, PV leading enterprises leverage scale effect to gain cost advantages and market penetration. The diffusion speed of the PV market tends to be influenced by cost changes caused by technical advancement and policy preferences, and e. Considering the cost components specific for renewables, this study conducted an economic feasibility and cost parity analysis of China's PV generation, so that the competitive potential and the spatiotemporal development pattern of technology costs could be worked out. The research framework (Fig. 2) and process is outlined as follows:•(1)Firstly, we collected 648 PV power generation projects and their techno-economic parameters, such as installed capacity, power generation, initial investment and operation and maintenance costs, among others, from 30 provinces in China (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau).•(2)Secondly, we conducted the S-LCOE model by integrating balancing costs and grid costs into conventional LCOE framework and applied it to quantify the total costs of PV projects. The S-LCOE of PV technology in each province was measured as the average of the S-LCOE of all PV projects within the province, which was described as the provincial S-LCOE (S-LCOEP).
