China Solar Roof Photovoltaic Sun Room

Rooftop solar PV installations in China may surge in the next three years as the country goes through a green energy transition and plans to make renewable energy a key cornerstone in the country's path to a greener economy, a recent research report said.

Fishman, an energy analyst at the Lantau Group, an economic consultancy firm in Shanghai, was keen to meet with developers in Shandong to understand how China is developing extensive rooftop solar installations at such a remarkable pace.

Most of that rooftop solar has been added in the past two years, as China offered support for local governments to boost installations, and raised power rates to businesses, making generating their own electricity more attractive.

The country's rapid development of rooftop solar capacity is also driven by government incentives. Newly added annual installed capacity for solar stations has been around 30 GW on average over the past few years, China New Energy Investment and Financing Alliance said.

At the same time, the Whole County PV programme provides an opportunity to revitalize rural China, local officials say. For example, homeowners can receive extra income by lending their rooftops to solar developers, or by selling the power generated by their rooftop system, Fishman says. The plan seems to be working.

Most of the country's distributed solar photovoltaics are installed in the eastern and southern parts of China, where the economy is prosperous and demand for power is greater, including in Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.