In late October, China's largest power utility company State-owned State Grid Corp announced that it will provide free connections for distributed PV solar electricity producers that are close to customers.

The company will be responsible for the cost of the connection design and modifications to the national grid.

In September, the National Energy Administration announced a plan to develop distributed solar power plants in a large scale. It has called for local governments to propose new solar power projects.

According to the plan, China's installed distributed solar power generation capacity will reach 15 gigawatts by the end of 2015, 5 gW more than the target in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

"The key for China's solar industry is expanding the domestic market, and distributed solar power generation will allow the industry to develop as long as grid connection problems can be solved," said Meng Xiang'an, deputy director of the China Renewable Energy Society.

Many governmental departments including the China Electricity Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and NEA will jointly help the industry to get through the difficult period by promoting new energy projects, said Wang Sicheng, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the NDRC, during an industry conference on Oct 23.

NEA plans to offer subsidies about 0.4 yuan ($0.06) for each kilowatt-hour of distributed solar power.

The amount includes subsidies from both the central and local governments, according to industrial insiders.

But Wang said financing will be a challenge because the total cost of the initiatives will reach about 150 billion yuan.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn

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