China’s feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for solar PV projects for 2017 has been officially announced by the National Development and Reform Commission. The rates for large-scale, ground-mounted projects in different regions will be generally higher than those formerly announced and discovered, while the rate for distributed generation (DG) PV systems will remain at the same level to 2016.
The final rates for PV projects are all higher than the rates announced in the Commission’s drafts. FIT subsidy for PV projects in Tibet, additionally, is RMB 1.05/kWh, which is also higher than the rate unveiled in weeks ago.
The FIT rates overall represent a consecutively reductive trend comparing with the rates for 2015 and 2016, and the Commission noted in its official announcement that it plans to readjust the rates year by year in the future. Furthermore, competitive measures such as solar tenders are encouraged for project allocation for local governments because these measures are believed to accelerate cost reduction as well as technology improvement. The bid prices shall be restricted by the FIT rates.
PV projects that filed for China’s national PV installation and subsidy scale (so-called “subsidy index”) after January 1st, 2017 will be eligible for 2017’s subsidy rates, so are projects that filed before the end of 2016 but being unable to connect to the grid by June 30, 2017.
“We expect that China will have another installation rush in the first half of 2017,” said an analyst at EnergyTrend regarding China’s 2017 FIT rates and the yearly deadline set on June 30, 2017. “However, the rush may not be as strong as in this year.”
