China considers lowering solar subsidies

• 11 years ago (2013-03-12)
• Junior Isles

Asia 848 Europe 1061 North America 998 Renewables 751

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Draft regulations from China’s National Development and Reform Commission show that it is considering lower than expected subsidies for distributed solar power projects, according to industry insiders.

Distributed solar farms will receive subsidies of 0.35 yuan ($0.05) per kWh, and there will be four different regional rates from 0.75 yuan to 1 yuan per kWh for solar plants selling electricity to grid operators, according to the draft.

The lower than expected subsidy for distributed solar could indicate the authority's priority to push forward industrial integration amid a supply glut, according to analysts.

This seems to indicate a change of direction from the State Grid’s announcement late last year that it would connect distributed PV solar power producers free of charge. This provided a boost to the domestic Chinese solar industry which had been under pressure from tariffs, anti-dumping and anti-subsidies investigations against Chinese products in the US and Europe.

Since October, the State Grid said it has received up to 119 applications for distributed solar projects with total generation capacity of 338 MW.

It also revealed that by end of 2012 there were already 15 600 distributed power generation projects with total installed capacity of 34.36 GW in China.