The biggest issue of Chinese PV industry in the first half of 2014 is the unbalanced capacity allocation in distributed PV generation (8GW) and ground-mounted PV power plants (6GW). Rumor has it that the capacity allocation of ground-mounted PV plants in the Western China may be raised and it may drive new demands to certain PV products.

This January, China’s National Energy Administration officially unveiled its PV installation target of 14GW and set a 6GW capacity aiming at ground-mounted PV power plants, which are usually constructed in the wide Western areas in China. The rest 8GW are all allocated to distributed generation (DG) in Eastern China. It is believed that the decision was derived from a fact: power consumption in the Eastern areas is far more than the Western areas. Therefore, it is necessary to generate power in the Eastern areas to meet the power demand for better transmission efficiency. However, neither private DG installation projects nor official demonstration projects were massively launched in the first six months in 2014. Some PV workers hence started to call for adjusting the 6GW capacity allocation.

At a PV industrial forum called recently, several Chinese PV manufacturers suggested to increase the allocation of ground-mounted PV power plants and there is finally a positive response. A new revelation indicates that PV power plants license in Qinghai province may be doubled to 1GW during this year. The ground-mounted PV projects in Xingjian province is also to be doubled from the original target of 600MW.

At present, Western areas’ local governments and manufacturers are more aggressive in building PV power plants. Adding the fact that DG installation target seems difficult to be completely achieved, the 6GW target may be raise around 33% or more, representing a 2~3GW of capacity allocation exchanged.