Beijing to take measure of renewable energy sector

The Chinese government has started a ten-day study of the country's renewable energy industry, state media reported on Nov. 19.

The study aims to accurately determine how the industry is developing, Zhou Fengqi, executive director of the China Renewable Energy Scale-up Program (CRESP), was quoted by China Securities Journal as saying. Zhou made his comments at the 2009 Shenzhen Renewable Energy Technology and Investment International Forum on Nov. 19.

Zhou said that China's photovoltaic (PV) market will follow the same development path as the country's wind power market. For the wind power industry, the government put several wind power projects out for bid in an effort to determine an appropriate power tariffs for future wind projects.

Zhou expects that the country's wind power installed capacity may double this year, and he questioned whether it is reasonable for the government to continue to encourage wind power development by handing out such large subsidies to wind farms.

At the end of September, China' State Council released guidelines that aimed to discourage the development of some parts of the industry, including wind power equipment manufacturing and polysilicon production.