In China the projects not exceeding the capacity of 6 MW are qualified as minor; they are implemented on the roofs of private homes and apartment blocks, as well as in the territory of agricultural and industrial enterprises. Such projects allow for covering the growing demand for electricity at the same time minimising the costs of connecting to the grid and purchasing the inverters for transforming the direct current into alternate current. There are other advantages of such minor projects, such as the proximity to the end-users and practically zero grid losses of electricity.
The boom of such stand-alone projects in solar generation became possible due to the respective technologies being cheaper. In 2012, the average global cost of solar panels commissioning was USD 3,343 per KW, and in 2022 – USD 876 per KW, according to IRENA. The levelised cost of electricity for solar panels decreased more than 5 times during the same period – from USD 0.21 down to USD 0.04 per KW*h respectively.
The additional factor is the overall leadership of PRC in developing the solar power generation technologies. In particular, China is number one producer of metal silicon in the world: in 2022, China accounted for 79% of global supply of this type of feedstock, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Last year, 29 companies out of the top 30 global suppliers of silicon wafers, cells and modules had their headquarters in PRC (data by S&P Global Platts).
State support also plays an important role. Thus, in June 2021, the National Energy Administration launched the CNY 1 tln (USD 140 bn) program to stipulate installation of solar panels on the roofs of administrative buildings, educational centres and hospitals. According to the regulators, organisations from almost 25% of China counties participated in the program.
Not only China, but a series of other countries across the world feature such growth of the solar generation popularity. For example, in the USA the commissioning rates of solar panels not exceeding 1 MW of capacity cumulatively in housing, industrial and services sectors accelerated from 5.5 GW in 2021 up to 7.9 GW in 2023 according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Here, state support was also one of the factors: the costs of solar panels acquisition and installation are partially deducted from the Income Tax liabilities.
