Solar industry to go rural
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, December 14, 2012
Wang Heshun, a home appliance repairman from the city of Shijiazhuang in north China's Hebei province, has spent four months building a solar power generation system on his roof.
The system can yield up to 100 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of power a month. "I hope more families can use solar power, especially rural people," Wang said.
His dream may come true, as the government has been taking measures to facilitate solar energy generation in a bid to clean up the environment and help solar cell manufacturers who have been frustrated by increasingly harsh overseas markets.
Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday vowed to expand domestic markets by encouraging the application of solar power generation technology and connecting more on-site solar power generation sites to the national power grid.
China has connected less than 10 percent of its annual solar cell output, indicating huge market potential, Li said, citing the solar sector as an example of how to tap local markets and explore ecological progress.
"The government will invest 3.4 trillion yuan in environmental protection from 2011 to 2015," Li added.
Related departments, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, are planning to promote solar power appliances in rural areas and expand the domestic market for solar power products, an article in the Friday edition of the China Securities Journal said.
Policies have been supporting solar energy growth in urban industrial zones and public institutions like schools and hospitals, said Wang Shijiang, deputy head of the photovoltaic (PV) research institute under the China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID).
"The rural market for solar energy has yet to be tapped," Wang said.
Farms are being targeted as potential places to use solar power panels.
"Rural croplands are too vast to be given easy access to the state power grid. Pest-killing lamps, for example, can work better if fueled by solar energy," said Wen Jianhua, CEO of Gongchuang Solar, a company based in central China's Hunan province.
There are some obstacles to overcome in boosting solar energy in rural areas, however. A simple household PV power generation station costs thousands of yuan, quite a lot for rural families with low incomes, said Wang Runchuan, a manager at Shanghai-based JA Solar, adding that maintenance will further burden users.
A single kwh of electricity for agriculture now costs 0.5 to 0.6 yuan, but it takes about 1 yuan to yield one kwh of solar energy, he said, adding subsidy policies will be key to boosting solar power in rural areas.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has earmarked 13 billion yuan this year for solar power projects, including 7 billion yuan announced on Tuesday.
The National Energy Administration (NEA) on Sept. 12 reset the target for China's installed solar power generation capacity by 2015 to 21 gigawatts (GW), a three-fold rise from 5 GW, the target set in 2010.
The NEA has urged local authorities to improve on-site PV generation demonstration centers.
On-site generation, known as distributed generation, is seen as a desirable model for solar power. Usually done on a small scale near power consumers, it stands in contrast to the large-scale model that now dominates China.
A key bottleneck in promoting solar energy is the difficulty in connecting to the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the country's largest power grid network operator, due to potential competition. More solar power plants could mean less use of power transmitted by the SGCC.
The SGCC has made concessions, announcing in October that it will facilitate the process of connecting solar power stations to the main power grid. Solar generators with less than 6 MW of installed capacity can be connected to the grid for free. Once connected, producers can sell their extra solar power.
Efforts to boost domestic solar energy have been made amid tougher export situations following trade moves made in two key overseas markets.
The U.S. International Trade Commission backed Washington's plan in early November to issue anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of crystalline silicon PV cells and modules from China.
The EU announced in November that it will investigate alleged state subsidies for Chinese solar panel manufacturers.
Solar cell producers have subsequently turned to local markets. Fang Peng, JA Solar's CEO, said in the company's quarterly report that domestic shipments "more than doubled" in the third quarter from the previous one.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)