New | Strong progress by Chinese solar power generators will see subsidies eliminated by 2025
Senior official also says wind power subsidies likely to end by 2020
Chinese solar and wind power generators will be further weaned off their reliance on subsidies for growth, after meeting their technical goals quicker than expected, according to an industry regulator.
“Assuming no wastage of wind and solar power generated due to power grid bottlenecks, we had estimated that wind power will reach grid parity by 2020 and solar power by 2025,” Zhu Ming, the director of the National Energy Administration’s renewable energy department told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the China Photovoltaic Conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
“We now expect that to be reached faster, due to rapid technological advancement. The rising solar energy conversion efficiencies achieved will mean lower power production costs.”
Grid parity refers to the closing of the production cost gap between higher-cost renewable clean energy and that of the entire power generation industry, which in China is still dominated by highly polluting coal-fired power stations.
By that point, renewable energy will no longer require subsidies.
Zhu made the comment three weeks after the administration issued a draft document proposing to cut subsidised power tariffs of ground-mounted solar farms from the start of next year by between 23 and 31 per cent, depending on regions. The proposed cuts for off-grid solar farms, mainly roof-top ones, are to be cut by between 29 and 52 per cent.