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China Makes the US Blush When It Comes to Solar Power

By the end of 2011 China will have 1.8 GW of solar energy, as much as the US can brag with

Nov 8, 2011 14:56 GMT  ·  By
Image representing Nellis Solar Power Plant in the United States, one of the largest photovoltaic power plants in North America.
   Image representing Nellis Solar Power Plant in the United States, one of the largest photovoltaic power plants in North America.

Nowadays, when the demand for alternative sources of energy goes off the roof, the US has to struggle to compete with China's increased efforts of developing and implementing solar power on a national scale.

A new study provided by Solarbuzz, China Deal Tracker highlights that this year, the competition will get tighter than ever, since China is supposed to install a number of solar PV equal with the entire amount of PV displayed by the US, until the end of 2011.

Furthermore, the report shows that the Chinese population started benefiting from a network of non-residential pipelines which have a total capacity of 16 GW, earlier this year, in October.

Experts affirm that 29 provinces are developing this strategy, but 86% of the energy provided comes from 10 projects.

At the same time, by the end of this year, 1.8 GW of green energy will be offered by solar power plants engaged in 195 major projects, a contribution which strongly competes with the American commitment of delivering earth-friendly power coming from sunlight.

The fact solar power has become so popular in China is mainly due to the fact that the government is keen on supporting the expansion of this field of activity.

Its unified national feed-in tariff and the prices which decrease almost to a point in which they are sold under their real price makes America experience a hard time overcoming China's achievements.

“China’s FIT rates—1.15 CNY/kWh in 2011 and 1.0 CNY/kWh for 2012—used to be considered so low that project development activities have been mostly limited to high solar radiation regions such as Golmud. However, system prices fell so fast in 2011 that project profitability has been improved to reasonable levels in other locations,” declared Ray Lian, analyst at Solarbuzz.

China has proved throughout time its strength as a powerful competitor on the international market of solar energy.

One of its greatest earth-friendly achievement was completed earlier this year, when the Chinese administration announced that the nation doubled its 2015 solar power target, making it rise from only 5 GW to 10 GW.