Chinese Solar Plant Achieves Lower Tariff than Coal

Making solar power competitive, the tariff from the Golmud plant, developed by the China Three Gorges Group, is 0.316 yuan.

Two solar plants in northwest China’s Qinghai Province totaling a capacity of 1 GW were commissioned today. Each plant is having 500 MW capacity.

The two solar power bases are managed by National Energy Administration in the cities Delingha and Golmud which is the Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi.

Making solar power competitive, the tariff from the Golmud plant, developed by the China Three Gorges Group, is 0.316 yuan (5 US cents) per kWh whereas the benchmark price of electricity generated by coal-fired power plants is 0.325 yuan.

This has happened for the first time in Chinese solar power industry and is thus unprecedented paving way for solar industry to flourish in the country.

“Two bases can generate 1.5 billion kWh of electricity each year, helping save 478,000 tonnes of standard coal,” Chen Yuan, deputy director of the prefecture development and reform commission, said.

“This could help reduce annual emissions of dust by 6,494 tonnes and cut annual emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide”, said Chen.

In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the major problem of pollution in China, the country has been adapting to renewable energy from quite some time now.