China approves over 22 GW of solar projects based on feed-in tariff mechanism

China’s National Energy Administration has approved 22.78 GW of the feed-in tariff (FiT)-based solar projects. These solar photovoltaic (PV) projects are expected to be grid connected by December 2019. They have been approved under China’s first national unified bidding for solar projects seeking FiTs. A total of 4,338 solar PV projects, with a combined capacity of 24.55 GW, were proposed to be developed, but only 3,921 projects totalling 22.78 GW have received the official approval. Apart from these, 417 proposed solar projects with a capacity of approximately 1.77 GW have not been approved. Of the approved projects, 366 are ground-mounted utility-scale solar projects with a total capacity of 18.12 GW. Moreover, 473 of them are distributed generation solar projects totalling 0.56 GW, while 3,082 are self-generation or excess capacity solar projects totalling 4.1 GW. The official deadline of the approved 22.78 GW is set for December 31, 2019.