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Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held at the great hall in Beijing on March 3rd. Deputies of National People's Congress (NPC) and PV manufacturers came up with suggestions and proposals regarding current PV issues in China, including distributed PV, BIPV, and so on.
Hejun Li: The need to establish incentives and supports for BIPV development
Board chairman and CEO of Hanergy Holding Group, Hejun Li, suggested the incentive and support set up for BIPV development. He indicated that BIPV installation area can reach 1.26 billion square meters, with total capacity approaching 81.9GW and since China has the largest architectural market in the world, there are a lot of potentials in BIPV in China. Plus, the development of Chinese BIPV products is relatively matured. However, current subsidies for distributed PV systems may not allow investors to earn a large enough return to meet the investment goal. Take Beijing for example, payback period is 14 years if installing BIPV.
Therefore, Li had two suggestions – one is establish mandatory measures, which means enforce BIPV in new buildings or that the energy consumption for new buildings must achieve 15% of self-consumption. Second is project investment subsidy. Li suggested to use BIPV products which meet national standard in new or renovated buildings. Governments will then give out one-time investment subsidy according to installation area once the project passes the qualification.
Hanyuan Liu: Tax exemption for distributed PV systems
Chairman of Tongwei Group, Hanyuan Liu, pointed out the reasons why China’s PV installation capacity could not achieve the target of 14GW in 2014, which are second US-China trade war, internal economic downturn, and poor cash flow. In addition, distributed PV market is restricted by other problems, such as low investment attractiveness and cumbersome procedures.
Therefore, Liu came up with the following three suggestions:
1) Accelerate the tax exemption for distributed PV systems
2) Carry out subsidy plans for solar PV and raise FIT from time to time, if needed
3) Simplify PV project construction and approval processes
Peter Choy: The need to loosen residential PV regulations
Peter Choy, a member of the CPPCC National Committee, deputy chief engineer of China Electric Power Research Institute, believed that weak residential PV demand in China is caused by over-strict policies. For example, the approval process for grid-connected PV systems is more complicated in China. That’s why when residents install solar panels on their roof-tops, they are the only ones that can use the power generated from the panels. It’s difficult to connect these solar panels onto the grid. Furthermore, many places in China restrict PV installations through aesthetic perspectives of cities, architectures, and communities.
Therefore, Choy provided three suggestions:
1) Add regulations and requirements for installing solar panels in the buildings within cities
2) Loosen the requirements for installing solar panels on roof-tops/walls, as well as lawns and other ground management in communities
3) Old building makeover. Aside from adding earthquake resistant engineering/retrofitting and installing elevators, PV installation should be encouraged according to users’ requests.
Gongshan Zhu: Exemption of land use tax for PV plants
Gongshan Zhu, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and chairmanof GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, suggested that PV plants should be exempted from land use taxes. He indicated if the Nation has granted thermal power land use tax-exempt status based on the rules of power sector’s land use tax-exempt regulated by the State Administration of Taxation, solar PV should also be granted the same thing. Through such adjustment, the energy structure can be optimized.