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                 Solar Power Development in China





                                                                                   Xiaoping He
                   CHINA CENTER FOR ENERGY ECONOMICS AND RESEARCH, THE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS,
                                                                XIAMEN UNIVERSITY, XIAMEN, CHINA
                                                                                 xphe@xmu.edu.cn


                 2.1  Introduction
                 China is one of the fortunate countries in the world blessed with abundant solar energy. Its
                                                                      12
                 annual horizontal solar irradiation is equivalent to 2.4 × 10  t (2.4 trillion metric tonnes)
                 of standard coal, which could correspond to the total electricity output by tens of thou-
                 sands of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station [1]. In over two-thirds of China, the annual
                 sunshine duration ranges between 2200 and 3300 h, while the solar radiation intensity var-
                                              −2
                 ies between 5016 and 8400 MJ m , equivalent to 170–285 kg of standard coal per square
                 meter [2]. Early development of solar technologies in China was driven by space applica-
                 tions in the 1970s, and ground applications were limited to household small systems in
                 remote area without access to grid electricity. In 2005, there were only six photovoltaic
                 (PV) manufacturers, producing silicon cells, with a total capacity of 40.6 MW [3]. During
                 the pre-2013 years, more than 90% of China’s PV products were exported to Europe and
                 North America. This was due to a lack of incentive policy and insufficient regulation in
                 China to promote the deployment of PVs in the domestic market.
                   In 2013, the European Union and the United States both imposed antidumping (AD)
                 and countervailing duties (CVDs) on imports of silicon PV modules and cells originating
                 from China, seriously frustrating China’s PV export market resulting in an overcapacity
                 in the Chinese PV industry. To activate the PV market at home, the Chinese government
                 progressively put in place a number of incentive policies and special investment schemes
                 for the development of solar power. “Opinions on promotion of healthy development of
                 PV industry,” issued by the State Council in July 2013, specified for the first time the key
                 polices of PV power, with regard to subsidy duration, electricity billing and settlement
                 methods, and electricity feedback to grid. The feed-in-tariff (FiT) incentive policy for PV
                 applications and various direct financial subsides (e.g., Golden-sun Demonstration Pro-
                 gram) resulted in a growth of the domestic PV market (Fig. 2.1). At the end of 2015, China
                 was the world’s leader (ahead of Germany for the first time) in terms of solar installations.
                   China has now, by far, the world’s largest PV industry, either in terms of PV manufactur-
                 ing or application. The PV generation capacity increased from a small capacity of 0.26 GW
                 in 2010 to 77.42 GW (including 10.32 GW distributed PV), currently accounting for 4.7%
                 of China’s total installed capacity (Fig. 2.1) and translating into 1.1% of the total  electricity
                 produced (Fig. 2.2). Yanchi PV Power Plant in Qinghai, with a total planned capacity of
                 A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-811479-7.00002-6  19
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