Industry Trends

China plans to increase the construction scale of photovoltaic power stations

Beijing, October 7th (Xinhua) -- The National Energy Administration recently issued a notice clarifying that the construction scale of photovoltaic power stations in China will be increased by 5.3 million kilowatts, mainly to support the construction of photovoltaic power stations in areas such as new energy demonstration cities and green energy demonstration counties with superior construction conditions, good completion of issued construction plans, and active innovation in development methods.

According to the introduction of the National Energy Administration, this is an increase in the annual construction scale of photovoltaic power stations in some regions based on the construction and operation of photovoltaic power generation in various regions in the first half of the year and development needs. The provinces with more increases include Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Xinjiang, etc.

The notice requires that the energy regulatory departments of relevant provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities should promptly connect with power grid enterprises and implement relevant matters for supporting power grid construction. In principle, each project should start construction within 2015 and be connected to the grid for power generation before June 30, 2016. In addition, power grid enterprises should promptly formulate supporting power grid construction plans, coordinate and promote the construction and renovation of supporting power grids, and provide grid connection and grid operation services for photovoltaic power generation projects.

Previously, the National Energy Administration issued a notice in March on the implementation plan for photovoltaic power generation construction in 2015, which stipulated that the construction scale of new photovoltaic power stations nationwide would be 17.8 million kilowatts in 2015. The total scale of centralized photovoltaic power stations and distributed photovoltaic power station projects planned to start construction in various regions in 2015 shall not exceed the newly allocated scale of photovoltaic power station construction. Projects within the scale are eligible for subsidies from the National Renewable Energy Fund.