China plans huge distributed solar plants

Sites will be at development zones and industrial parks.

The National Energy Administration is planning to set-up distributed solar photovoltaic demonstration power plants across the country. The plants will be operated in National Economic Development Zones and industrial parks with high power consumption, large numbers of industrial companies and adequately sunny weather.

NEA requires the solar projects be funded by a single development team with the use of a “self-generate/consume” model. They also required that subsidies should not exceed RMB 0.45/kWh.

In September 2012, the government unveiled plans to stimulate local PV demand with a program to promote distributed solar generation. The measures seek to address overcapacity in China’s PV manufacturing industry and lower trade tensions with Europe and the US.

Distributed generation allows collection of energy from many sources and may give lower environmental impacts and improved supply security.