Thin-film giant Hanergy has welcomed the Chinese government’s policy drive to support grid-parity solar, and told pv magazine it will encourage manufacturers to continue to drive down costs and improve efficiencies.
“It … encourages the industry to control costs, to increase conversion efficiency rate and to gradually replace fossil energy,” a Hanergy spokesman said in the wake of a series of policy measures announced by Beijing last week that aim to incentivize projects developed without subsidies from central government. “It will be a good opportunity for the development of the global solar industry.”
The new measures include conditions on local authorities, which will have to reduce non technical project development costs and provide grid connections for any new capacity – a big ask given there will be no limits on capacity additions in 12 of China’s provinces and parts of three others, and only partial controls in a further 12 provinces and seven partial provinces.
“For the construction of wind power and solar power supporting facilities, the support of the local government is a must,” the Hanergy spokesman told pv magazine, adding the overall impact of the measures would benefit big solar players such as Hanergy.
Measures will buoy global solar
“[The] subsidy parity [with] on-grid price policy is conducive to the healthy and orderly development of the entire Chinese solar industry,” he added, “which helps to eliminate some inferior small enterprises and concentrates resources to the top-tier enterprises. It is rather more conducive to the development of the whole industry. As the world’s largest solar thin film power generation and solutions providing company, Hanergy will be benefited [by] this new policy as we expect more projects to be implemented.”
The Beijing-headquartered company also welcomed the government’s instructions to state-owned lenders to finance such ‘grid parity’ projects, its demand that power companies ensure stable income streams for developers by signing 20-year PPAs, and the introduction of a green power certificate trading market – administered from the center – that will bring additional revenue.
“The document promulgated by the Chinese government has made provisions for the development of solar and wind power from the aspects of fund [guarantees], resource matching, policy support and price guarantee. Therefore, it’s a welcome move for the development of the industry,” added the Hanergy representative.
Last week’s announcement by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Agency immediately lifted Chinese solar stocks and figures released today have added to the feelgood factor in global solar.
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