Weaning Off

China moves to optimize PV power development

The Chinese Government has released new rules on investment and subsidies for photovoltaic (PV) installations to set the industry on a more rational development path and encourage advanced technologies in the sector.

J o i n t l y issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) on June 1, the new rules state that no construction plans will be advanced for common PV projects this year. Furthermore, for new distributed PV projects, there will be a quota of about 10 gigawatts (GW) this year, while the national feed-in tariff will be cut by 0.05 yuan ($0.008) for every kilowatt-hour as of the beginning of June, except for national-level poverty allevia- tion PV projects.

The new rules aim to cut the feed-in tariff and reduce corporate reliance on government subsidies. Based on pilot programs, the country will release more policies on encouraging direct transactions between PV power generators and users, so as to reduce transaction fees, improve the quality of PV development and promote orderly and sound development of the PV industry, according to Li Chuangjun, Deputy Director of the Department of New Energy and Renewable Energy of the NEA.

Hitech focus

According to the new rules, before new official documents can be issued for the resumption of common PV construction projects, local governments must stop building common PV power plants with government subsidies.

Moreover, since figures from the NEA show that from January to April of this year, 8.75 GW of newly installed capacity for distributed PV projects has been completed, there is little room left in the 10-GW quota for more new distributed PV projects within 2018.

Explaining the reason for this policy, the NEA said in a press release that in recent years a large number of common PV power plants have been built in China, but in some localities, PV capacity is not in full use or has even been abandoned. Therefore with the suspension for 2018, it aims to regulate excessive capacity and more importantly, leave