F-I-T FEEDS BOOM IN CHINA SUN

China’s Feed-in Tariff Policy Stimulates 14 GW Photovoltaic Project Pipeline
October 10, 2011 (solarbuzz)

"The release of a national photovoltaic (PV) Feed-in Tariff (FiT) policy in July has resulted in a significant increase in PV project development activity in China…[A]s of the end of September, the non-residential PV project pipeline in China stands at 14 GW.

"Solarbuzz has identified 1,007 non-residential projects in China that are installed, being installed or in the development phase…The Northwest region, where both intense solar radiation and vast amounts of land are available for utility-scale projects, currently accounts for 66% of the total China project pipeline. The top five province pipelines in megawatt terms are Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan."

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"Non-residential PV project activity, characterized by large project sizes, is now evident across 29 Chinese provinces. Projects above 1 MW are the major segment of the market in MW terms, accounting for 707 of the projects being monitored…creating an important and growing opportunity for project developers, as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. Most leading project developer groups are state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with the top 10 companies accounting for 9.7 GW…

"The collapse in factory-gate module prices in 2011 has enabled projects to provide reasonable internal rates of return (IRR), considering the CNY1.15/kWh tariff. Installed system prices of ground-mount projects above 10 MW are now below CNY15 per watt and decreasing…"