About 20% of the solar cells installed worldwide last year were in China.
In Shaanxi (China), Li Lifeng has installed dozens of solar panels on the roof. He is one of more than 2.4 million homeowners across the country who have installed rooftop solar power in the past 5 years.
Most of the rooftop solar power capacity in China was generated in the past two years. Self-producing electricity became more attractive when Beijing supported local governments to install solar power and increased electricity purchase prices.
Last year, there was more newly installed small-scale solar power capacity in China than the total clean power capacity in any other country. For every five solar panels installed globally by 2022, one will be on the roof of a Chinese home or business.
For Mr. Li, the decision to install solar power came from financial reasons. This 52-year-old man owns a noodle shop and two houses, an hour’s drive from Xi’an. When his son was about to get married and another child was about to go to college, the couple wanted to have more income before retiring.
Since connecting the first panel to the grid in early 2018, the Li family has earned more than 62,000 yuan ($8,963) from selling electricity. “You can’t make that much profit by depositing money in the bank,” Li said.
China has the world’s largest solar and wind power system, but the supply still depends heavily on coal-fired power. Energy prices spiked after the Ukraine conflict and a prolonged drought affecting hydropower forced them to increase coal burning last year.
However, to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, the world’s second largest economy must make more efforts to gradually eliminate fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government builds vast solar and wind farms in sparsely populated deserts. But the infrastructure connecting them to megacities in central and eastern China is expensive and incomplete.
Land funds to build large-scale renewable power farms are also running out in densely populated areas, especially in coastal provinces such as Shandong and Hebei. At the same time, the government is also under pressure to balance the energy transition with preserving natural habitats after decades of industrialization.
Therefore, China decided to use rooftops as a weapon in the fight against climate change. In 2022, the country will add more than 51 gigawatts of small-scale solar power. About 40% of total capacity now comes from rooftops and gardens.
Beijing has generously supported all solar power projects to ensure profitable investments. However, at the end of 2021, when the price of solar panels decreased, the government stopped the program. Since then, budget funding for localities to generate renewable electricity has shrunk or stopped.
Instead, the country launched a new program to support local governments in bringing together small projects to get large orders. This is intended to attract more solar power developers and reduce costs. Localities are encouraged to install solar panels on the roofs of nearly a third of commercial buildings and a fifth of rural homes by the end of 2023. This policy has created an unprecedented boom in electricity installations. Small-scale solar.
Longi Green Energy Technology, the world’s largest solar equipment maker, forecasts China will add 60 gigawatts of small-scale solar this year and expand about 20% annually in the future. near future.
According to the manufacturer, China’s buildings and rooftops can generate more than a terawatt of solar power capacity, which is nearly the size of the entire global solar power industry today. Demand is so high that last year, Longi introduced the first panels specifically designed to be installed on rooftops, which are more efficient and aesthetically pleasing.
Not only residential homes, solar panels on factories and commercial buildings have also increased significantly in recent years. The driving force comes from prolonged power shortages that affect production activities.
Chinese businesses are also facing increasing pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions, both from the government and foreign customers. After widespread power shortages at the end of 2021, electric companies were allowed to increase prices for industrial and commercial customers. This further accelerates the transition to solar power.
On the roof of the complex of Yuanzheng Business Incubator (Xi’an), more than 300 panels are providing half of the electricity needs. Home to more than 20 companies that manufacture products such as electronics and prosthetics, the complex saves about 42,000 yuan (more than 6,100 USD) on electricity bills each month.
The panels were installed by Jinze Power Group, a solar equipment retailer. The amount of projects they undertake has doubled in 2021 and 2022. “Back in 2015, we would have been happy if we sold a few dozen panels. Now it is normal to sign transactions of thousands of panels every day,” said Liu Jihong, Head of Project Development.
However, the outlook for solar power is not entirely favorable. The dizzying speed of installation caused the power grid in some areas to be overloaded. Shandong, which has the most rooftop solar power in China, asked households to temporarily suspend power generation during the Lunar New Year to protect the grid as demand fell. The Shandong government recently announced a policy to buy solar power at negative prices to limit supply during times of excess output.
Additionally, a booming rooftop solar market could lead to volatile electricity prices and more uncertain income for people like Li. Some coastal areas are requiring or encouraging the installation of rooftop solar power with battery storage, making the investment more expensive.
As some local governments introduce their own incentive programs, the expiration of national subsidies means new rooftop solar projects are less profitable than before, despite falling equipment costs.
“In the next few years, solar power still has the opportunity to grow strongly, but it will have to be done in a more sustainable way,” Cosimo Ries – analyst at consulting firm Trivium China – assessed the market. Rooftop solar power.
After paying back 60,000 yuan for the first solar power system, Li borrowed nearly 100,000 yuan in December 2022 to install the second system. “We are farmers so we don’t have much pension. Income from solar panels will help ease the pressure of providing for children in old age,” Li said.
Source: VnExpress
