
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has published a draft version of proposed feed-in tariff (FiT) levels for ground mount and distributed generation PV power plants for 2017 that could lead to significant cuts to both sectors and overall curtailment of installations.
In a client note, Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory Co. Ltd. (AECEA) noted that the FiT levels remained ‘unofficial’ and were only in 'draft' form as they were disseminated via various Chinese media outlets.
Try Premium for just $1
- Full premium access for the first month at only $1
- Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
- Cancel anytime during the trial period
Premium Benefits
- Expert industry analysis and interviews
- Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
- Exclusive event discounts
Or get the full Premium subscription right away
Or continue reading this article for free
Ground-mounted solar PV Power plants:
Region 1: RMB 0.80 to 0.55 = minus 31%
Region 2: RMB 0.88 to 0.65 = minus 25%
Region 3: RMB 0.98 to 0.75 = minus 23%
Distributed Solar PV:
Region 1: RMB 0.42 to 0.20 = minus 52%
Region 2: RMB 0.42 to 0.25 = minus 40%
Region 3: RMB 0.42 to 0.30 = minus 28%
However, without a major change the FiT cuts would potentially lower ROI (return on investment) levels significantly for PV project developers and therefore impact installations and demand throughout the supply chain.
AECEA also noted that the potential severity in the FiT cuts came as a surprise in the distributed generation sector as this was recently considered to be favoured by the NEA in light of the utility-scale ground-mounted PV sector suffering from grid curtailment issues in several regions.