But he questioned the prospect of foreign green investment in China. "Theoretically it should attract more foreign funds. But the truth is, foreign funds need seasoned Chinese teams to find good projects, something which is not easy to implement," he said. The Chinese government set a goal in 2007 for the country's renewable energy to account for 1.8 million kilowatts of solar power capacity, 300 million kilowatts of hydropower, 30 million kilowatts of wind power and 30 million kilowatts of biomass power by 2020.

The nation's solar power capacity may rise to 10 million kilowatts by 2020, helped by government subsidy, Wang Zhongying, the renewable energy development director at the research center of the NDRC, told Bloomberg earlier this month at an energy conference.

But, there are still some voices questioning about the feasibility of the new target.

"Firstly, some of the technology, for example battery storage from solar power, is still years away from being perfected," said Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Founding Partner, Dezan Shira & Associates.

"And economically, solar power, is four times more expensive than China's conventional energy source of coal. So, in order to gauge whether or not the Clean Energy Initiative is feasible, one needs to pay attention to the economics of the plan," he said.

(China Daily May 25, 2009)