New Solar Power Subsidies to See the Light

A source from China's top economic planning body said the authority has finished collecting opinions about the feed-in tariff ratings of China's solar industry, which indicates the finalized scheme may be issued soon, China Securities Journal said on Wednesday.

Wang Zhongyin, deputy director of Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, said the new policy will allocate subsidies ranging from 0.8 yuan to 1.1 yuan/kWh to grid-integrated solar power plants. For self-use distributed PV projects, the subsidy will be 0.35 yuan/kWh.

Analysts said the scheme will boost installed solar power to 6 GW in 2013.

China has encouraged the construction of solar plants in a bid to tackle the environmental protection issue, but owners of solar plants are suffering from financial strain, partly due to delayed subsidies and policy ambiguity.

Wang Haisheng, an analyst with Mingsheng Securities, said under the new subsidy scheme it would take about 8 years for a self-use 1MV solar plant to cover the cost of construction, and 5 to 6 years for a commercial solar plant.