BIG BOOST FROM CHINA F-I-T

New Government Incentive Delivers Massive Upside to China Solar Market
Henning Wicht, August 11, 2011 (HIS iSuppli)

"The Chinese government’s new feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentive program is expected to give a major boost to the country’s solar industry, potentially increasing installations by a combined 1.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2011 and 2012, according to the new IHS iSuppli Photovoltaics (PV) Service report…

"China’s PV installations previously were expected to amount to 1GW in 2011 and 1.4GW in 2012. However, the FIT could cause installations to increase by 50 percent…Installations in 2012 then could rise by 71.4 percent…[to] 2.4GW… a 1.5GW upside for installations during the two-year period…"

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"A FIT promotes the use of solar energy by guaranteeing that utility companies will buy excess electricity produced by solar installations at homes and businesses. This helps individuals or organizations to defray the upfront costs of investing in a PV system. Extensive use of FITs has helped Germany to become the world’s leading country for PV…

"…[The] documentation provided by the government…leaves several unanswered questions…For one, the document doesn’t mention the subsidy period. Furthermore, only a single FIT rate is offered for all PV projects installed in the different regions of China and for all installations methods…Also, the source of subsidy capital may not be sufficient to fund all PV installations…IHS predicts this account will remain in deficit until 2014…Finally, the document doesn’t address the issue of grid connection…"