Chinese government mulls policies to support solar power industry

Reuters    Translate This Article
19 October 2012

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is working on policies, including subsidies and easier access to the grid, to help its ailing solar power producers expand in the domestic market, the China Daily reported on Saturday, citing industry officials and government sources.

The State Grid Corp, China's largest state-owned utility, is considering giving its subsidiaries at city level the authority to approve solar power plants with less than 10,000 kilowatts of installed capacity to be connected to the grid, said deputy director Meng Xiangan.

At a meeting earlier this week, the State Grid also agreed in principle to waive charges associated with connecting to the grid, which usually costs millions of yuan, Meng said, adding that a plan to develop the country's solar industry has been handed to the central government and is awaiting approval.

'The obstacles companies face in order to be connected to the national grid are the biggest problem for the solar power industry,' Meng was quoted as saying.

The National Energy Administration is also working on a plan to offer subsidies ranging from about 0.40 yuan ($0.06) to 0.60 yuan for each kilowatt-hour of distributed solar power.

The amount includes subsidies from both the central and local governments, the China Daily said, citing a senior official from the administration.

China's export-focused solar panel industry has been hit hard by excess manufacturing capacity and waning foreign demand as European nations cut back subsidies for green power. Companies have slashed prices 30 percent this year as stockpiles grow, virtually erasing the industry's profits.

Chinese producers, including Suntech Power Holdings and Trina Solar, are increasingly turning to their home market, which has become one of the world's biggest, for solar energy development.

Overseas, they battle not only a weak market environment but also anti-dumping tariffs in the United States. Europe also could impose import duties.

(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by Paul Tait)

© Copyright 2012 Reuters

Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. 'Reuters' and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. For additional information on other Reuters media services please visit reuters.com/newsagency.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.