China Mulls Jettisoning Grants for Offshore Wind Power Projects After Next Year
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Jan 08 2020
/ SOURCE:  yicai
China Mulls Jettisoning Grants for Offshore Wind Power Projects After Next Year China Mulls Jettisoning Grants for Offshore Wind Power Projects After Next Year

(Yicai Global) Jan. 7 -- Chinese regulators are looking to cancel central government subsidies for offshore wind power projects from 2022 and instead encouraging local governments to step up to the plate and offer these grants to support the building of such schemes in their local regions, Shanghai Securities News reported today.

The country's central government will gradually phase out its subventions as the offshore wind power sector matures, the report noted, adding the current premium of CNY0.40 (5.7 US Cents) per kilowatt hour that the central government disburses will be replaced by CNY0.20 per kilowatt hour support from local authorities starting in 2022. This amount will fall by CNY0.05 in each successive year and will thus dwindle to zero by 2026.

China began to foster its offshore wind power industry from 2007 to encourage the use of renewable resources, and successively issued a series of incentives, including the central government allowances.

The country's volume of electricity generated by offshore wind power via the connected grids tallied 5.1 million kilowatts by October, and China had completed 77 percent of the planned amount it set out in its 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2016-2020), according to statistics from the nation's National Energy Administration.

The annual added capacity of offshore wind power generation through connected grids has been controlled at around 3 million kW, as per calculations, and applicable subsidies made up at most 0.3 percent of the 2018 financial revenues of the five affluent coastal provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Fujian.

Developing offshore wind power generation will greatly spur local economic growth, the report said, citing Qin Haiyan, the secretary-general of the Chinese Wind Energy Association under the China Renewable Energy Society, who added it will also positively assist economic and social development, optimize energy structures, and enhance the energy self-sufficiency of cities. Coastal provinces like Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian that boast great financial strength depend less on the subsidies extended, in any case.

Editor: Ben Armour

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Keywords:   Offshore Wind Power