A day after Chinese state media reported that Beijing is set to ban the use and trade of coal in its inner districts, Xinhua has now reported that the head of the National Energy Administration (NEA) has said that China is aiming to install 13 GW worth of solar PV power in 2014.
Wu Xinxiong, head of the NEA, is reported as saying that “China will strive to secure the target by supporting the development of distributed PV power generation.”
China announced in July of 2013 that they planned on installing 10 GW of PV power capacity each year from 2013 to 2015, and late last year it was revealed that China was actually aiming to install 12 GW this year. A number of analysts scoffed at the possibility China would install so much, but that was before China installed more solar in 2013 than the United States had ever installed.
There were rumors and predictions that China could actually push towards 14 GW of installation this year, and with these new statistics from within the Chinese administration, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year plays out.
As mentioned, China is already making big plays in the renewable energy game — not least of which are the massive installation goals they reached last year. Announced today, Hareon Solar is planning to invest almost $1 billion into the Hebei province, installing a massive 600 MW throughout the region.
As Xinhua made note of in their announcement, China has created a series of policies including subsidies and tax reduction to boost the support for distributed PV power. According to PV-Tech, Wu Xinxiong has encouraged local governments to drive distributed solar development with promises of future policy changes.
In the end, China will be one of the most influential solar players in the 2014 market, especially in light of the trade and policy shifts fluctuating through usually solar-influential countries.
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