۱- Introduction

۲- The status of DPV in China

۳- Obstacles and issues of distributed photovoltaic development

۴- Analysis of China’s distributed photovoltaic grid-connected electricity price route

۵- Conclusions

References

Abstract

The distributed photovoltaic power generation is an important way to make use of solar energy in cities. China issues a series of policies to support the development of distributed photovoltaics in law, electricity price, grid connection standard, project management, financial support and so on. However, there are still some defects in policies and market mechanism. China creates a competitive market with a significant number of projects of distributed photovoltaic power through the reform of the electricity market, yet substantial drawbacks of the corresponding investment subsidies prevent distributed photovoltaic power from rapidly developing. This paper summarizes the status quo of China’s distributed photovoltaic power development, given its long-term plan, presents excellences and shortcomings of the existing policy system, and looks into the supporting policies and implementation paths for China’s distributed photovoltaic power in different stages. Innovative business models and financial support models are conducive to the development of distributed photovoltaic power. Financial innovation methods such as crowd funding and asset securitization should be encouraged to develop a sound risk assessment mechanism for projects, involve insurance institutions, and establish a risk sharing mechanism. In the context of a series of supporting policies, the distributed photovoltaic power in China will move towards market-oriented standardization for a healthier and more stable development.

Introduction

As Chinese government promote clean energy development, the photovoltaic power (PV) involving centralized photovoltaic power (CPV) and distributed photovoltaic power (DPV) has been developing rapidly (Wenjing and Cheng, 2016). Due to the high land cost of the CPV (Ming, 2017), its development has been limited. However, DPV, which has a higher rate of return on investment (Hanqiao et al., 2014) and lower risk (Quansheng et al., 2016; Kirova and Velikova, 2016), is becoming the future development direction of PV. China has carried out ‘‘golden sun demonstration project’’ (Junhao, 2013) and ‘‘building-integrated photovoltaic’’ (Zhi, 2009) to promote the development of DPV. Before 2007, the PV industry was in the initial stage of pilot. From 2009 to 2012, China implemented five phases of the ‘‘Golden Sun project’’ and ‘‘photovoltaic building’’ (Changgui and (Changgui and Dacheng, 2014; Xiaoxia, 2011). The policy orientation is clear, and the DPV is growing at a rapid speed. In 2011, it was first proposed to subsidize PV with electricity price (Changsong, 2014). Since 2014, China local governments have promoted DPV in subsidies provision for electricity, equipment and so on Changsong (2013). In the early stage, the PV plants were mostly located in the west of China. However, the construction of the Western transmission channel lagged (Qiang and Ningbo, 2016), which caused the phenomenon of PV curtailment. In order to alleviate PV curtailment and promote DPV (Kunpeng, 2017; Xuehua, 2016), PV gradually developed in the middle east region of China (Xin, 2017). Therefore, the policy is an important driving force of DPV (Fengmei and Li, 2017; Jiyang et al., 2014), the research of policy is beneficial to the DPV industry (Bi, 2017). Many countries in the world have promulgated the policy of supporting DPV. In USA, the policy includes green certificate, asset assessment for clean energy loan and grid metering mechanism (Haag et al., 2012). Its preferential policy has slowed down compared with CPV though (Stokes and Breetz, 2018). The EU promotes the marketization of PV by reducing subsidies.