China Approves Subsidies For Rooftop Solar Projects
According to China Daily, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the Chinese government has renewed subsidies for rooftop solar panel installations.
Bloomberg.com writes: “Subsidies will range from 7.5 yuan ($1.2) to 9 yuan per watt, totaling 1.82 billion yuan for a batch of 126 approved projects.”
As opposed to China’s production-side subsidies for solar panel companies, which have been successfully contested as breaking world trade agreements, these government subsidies for solar installations are simply meant to encourage Chinese citizens and companies interested in solar systems to go ahead and buy them — by promising them the ability to pay a lower price for them.
China’s solar industry has been growing, and the country has been developing overall. The large and growing population needs more electricity than ever, and the use of abundant and inexhaustible sources of energy is a good way to meet growing electricity demand in the long run.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Our Latest EVObsession Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
$1.20 per watt is like more than the price of a panel’s DC output and more than half the price of a panel+inverter’s AC output!! Yes, as a legal replacement subsidy to the manufacturer subsidies they were getting thwacked in the WTO for, this is a dandy! I propose we respond in kind!
I wonder what China’s installed costs are. They could be well lower than Germany’s $2/watt with China’s lower labor costs.
$1.20 to $1.44 per watt could easily be more than a 50% subsidy.
I’d like to see the US get German-smart and move to a FiT. But our system is likely to be good enough. Just slower.
If Chinese installation costs are not lower than Germany’s they soon will be. China and or India could be installing solar for $1 a watt in less than 3 years. In fact, they could do it this year, if they can get their balance of system costs down fast enough. Which country will get there first, I don’t know. India has the advantage of lower labour costs and a huge off grid population, while China has a record of rapid deployment of technology. The race is on. Gentlemen, start your electric engines.
If either of you ever run across installation costs there, please do share. 😀