Policies on distributed photovoltaic power generation better than expected

Draft version of two policies that will have big impact on China's distributed photovoltaic power generation is better than expectation after soliciting suggestions from the public, Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

Management method of distributed photovoltaic power generation projects and National Energy Administration's views on improving the scale of photovoltaic power generation, which have been released for suggestions, are better than market expectation, analysts said at an industrial forum in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on Wednesday.

The main purpose of these two polices is to restrict the development scale of distributed photovoltaic power generation because it developed too fast last year with total assembly capacity far exceeding expectations, said Li Chongwei, vice-president of Zhejiang CHINT New Energy Development Co Ltd.

"Once the two policies are implemented, they will have great impact on the development of distributed photovoltaic power generation, but this doesn't mean the industry is approaching winter. On the contrary, it can record further development via other market-oriented transactions," Li said.

The distributed photovoltaic power market will get new momentum and become fairer and more efficient with the implementation of the two polices, together with a notice on market-oriented transactions of distributed photovoltaic power, introduced by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration last October, Li added.

The draft version of the policies is better than expectation as no limitation on household usage will encourage more installments, and subsidies will be allocated timely and in full, said Su Chen, chief analyst with Industrial Securities' power equipment and new energy industry.

The return rate of "self-generation and self-usage" mode is much higher, subsidies can be obtained more easily and scale of construction will also be expanded under the new regulation, Su said.

The policy on management method defined distributed photovoltaic power generation projects as small distributed photovoltaic power generation facilities with less than 6 megawatts total assembly capacity and small distributed photovoltaic power station with 6 to 20 megawatts total assembly capacity.

Household usage which is less than 50 kilowatts can choose three operation methods and the other small scale photovoltaic power generation facilities could only choose all self-usage or mainly self-usage and the leftovers selling to grid companies. Rooftop projects over 20 megawatts are not considered as distributed photovoltaic power generation projects, the report said.

Distributed photovoltaic power generation projects are not managed at national level but provincial level and enterprises, organizations and individuals are encouraged to develop such kind of projects. Distributed photovoltaic power generation projects are also encouraged to participate in diversified form of market-oriented transactions to improve their competitiveness in the market.

China's photovoltaic industry achieved record high development with new installed systems adding 53.06 GW of capacity to China's solar power industry last year, compared to an increase of 34 GW a year earlier, according to statistics from China's National Energy Administration.

China's overall PV-power capacity was also raise by the new installations to 130.25 GW by the end of 2017, higher than the 110 GW installation goal set for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), statistics from the administration show.