Represents the percentage of employees' gross pay to be contributed by the employer to a defined contribution plan as required under the law of People's Republic of China.

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	sol_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage of employees' basic salaries for which the employer contributes a matching contribution to a defined contribution plan established by local government.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	sol_DefinedContributionPlanLocalGovernmentEmployerMatchingContributionPercentOfBasicSalaries
Namespace Prefix:	sol_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The amount of the cost recognized during the period for defined contribution plans.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 715
-SubTopic 70
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=49170846&loc=d3e28014-114942

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=sol_SichuanReneSolaSiliconMaterialCoLtdMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=sol_ReneSolaJiangsuMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
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- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=sol_RenesolaShanghaiLtdMember
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EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (Details) - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (Details) - USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Line Items]
Total contribution	$ 10,592,227	$ 11,244,297	$ 15,451,989
ReneSola Zhejiang [Member]
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Line Items]
Percentage of employer matching contribution of basic salaries	14.00%
Percentage of employer's contribution required by PRC law	22.00%
Sichuan ReneSola Silicon Material Co., Ltd. ("Sichuan ReneSola")
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Line Items]
Percentage of employer matching contribution of basic salaries	19.00%
Percentage of employer's contribution required by PRC law	18.00%
ReneSola Jiangsu [Member]
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Line Items]
Percentage of employer matching contribution of basic salaries	19.00%
Percentage of employer's contribution required by PRC law	20.40%
Renesola Shanghai Ltd [Member]
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Line Items]
Percentage of employer matching contribution of basic salaries	20.00%
Percentage of employer's contribution required by PRC law	19.20%