China increases 2015 solar power target by 40%

China increased its 2015 target for solar power capacity by 40 percent to 21 gigawatts.

The National Energy Administration's new goal for installed solar capacity is much higher than the 15 GW state
media reported late last year, and more than double the 10 GW target set after the Japanese nuclear crisis in March 2011.

The NEA said that renewable energy would amount to 478 million tonnes of standard coal by 2015, accounting for more than 9.5 percent of the country's total energy consumption.

Targets for hydropower capacity remain unchanged at 290 GW at the end of 2015, with 260 GW from normal hydropower plants and 30 GW from pumped storage hydropower stations.

Goals for on-grid wind power have also been kept at 100 GW by the end of 2015, with 5 GW from wind farms on the sea.

The country standardized tariffs for energy fed into the national grid, reducing costs for solar power developers. That helped drive an estimated quadrupling of installed solar power capacity to more than 2.0 GW in 2011.

China's biggest energy producers and grid companies will alsobe given minimum requirements for the usage of renewable sources, helping solar
firms.

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