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Photovoltaic Leading Runner Program: Eight More Bases May Be Approved in 2017
Release time:
2016-11-04
With the announcement of the bidding results for the Inner Mongolia Wuhai Leading Runner Base on October 27th, the 2016 bidding for eight leading runner bases has come to a successful conclusion. In 2017, who will take the lead? How many new leading runner bases will be planned? Where will they ultimately be located? These have become the biggest questions in the industry over the remaining months of this year.
With the announcement of the bidding results for the Inner Mongolia Wuhai Leading Runner Base on October 27th, the bidding for the eight Leading Runner Bases in 2016 has been successfully concluded.
In 2017, who will take the lead? How many new Leading Runner Bases will be planned? Where will they ultimately be located? These have become the biggest questions in the industry over the remaining months of the year.
Reporters learned that the planning for the 2017 photovoltaic Leading Runner Bases has been largely finalized, with eight locations in four provinces and cities preliminarily selected. At the same time, some provinces and cities are still working to get on board, so there is still uncertainty. The final number of approved Leading Runner Bases could be 8-10.
After two rounds of bidding, the Leading Runner program has become a "booster" for promoting photovoltaic technology innovation and driving grid parity. At the same time, the Leading Runner program also faces some areas that need improvement, such as the harm caused to the industry by excessive price competition. Reporters learned that the new Leading Runner scoring standards may also be adjusted.
Four provinces and regions will be the final winners?
In 2016, the National Energy Administration planned 5.5 million kilowatts of photovoltaic Leading Runner technology bases and approved a total of eight bases: Baotou and Wuhai in Inner Mongolia (Class I resource areas), Zhangjiakou in Hebei (Class II resource areas, Winter Olympics photovoltaic corridor), Jining and Xintai in Shandong, the two Huai regions in Anhui, Yangquan and Ruicheng in Shanxi (Class III resource areas).
With the conclusion of the Wuhai Leading Runner project bidding, all these photovoltaic Leading Runner Bases have been allocated. Meanwhile, the application and selection work for the 2017 Leading Runner Bases has been underway.
On the morning of October 13th, the National Energy Administration convened the Hydropower and Water Resources Planning and Design General Institute, relevant units from various provincial and municipal development and reform commissions and energy bureaus, and held a "Photovoltaic Power Generation Leading Runner Technology Base Work Symposium" in Beijing. The meeting focused on discussing and deploying the project allocation methods for the next batch of Leading Runner Bases.
Reporters learned that more than 30 cities nationwide have planned and applied for photovoltaic Leading Runner Bases. In the review and selection process, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia may be the "winners" of the 2017 Leading Runner Bases. These four provinces and regions may receive three, two, one, and two Leading Runner Base projects, respectively.
“Currently, these eight projects are basically confirmed, including the second phase of the Shanxi Datong Leading Runner project. In addition, some provinces and cities, such as Qinghai, are still working on it, so the final list may still change,” an informed source told reporters.
It is understood that Jinzhong in Shanxi and Qiqihar in Heilongjiang also participated in the Leading Runner Base application. Next, the Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Bureau will review, screen, and evaluate the applicant cities to determine the final list. After the leadership's approval, the results will be announced publicly within a few months.
Scoring rules face adjustment
The "Leading Runner Program" is a photovoltaic support special plan initiated and implemented by the National Energy Administration. It has been implemented since 2015 through the construction of advanced technology photovoltaic power generation demonstration bases and new technology application demonstration projects. Its original intention is to promote the application of advanced photovoltaic technology products and industrial upgrading.
However, in actual implementation, the role of technology competition and industrial upgrading is not obvious. Instead, it has led enterprises to fiercely compete on prices in bidding, to a certain extent promoting the process of grid parity. For example, in the bidding in Yangquan, Shanxi; Baotou, Inner Mongolia; and the two Huai regions in Anhui, unbelievably low prices appeared, with some companies even bidding lower than the full-mark price.
Reporters learned that this issue has attracted the attention of the leaders of the Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Bureau. In next year's Leading Runner scoring standards, the score and calculation method of the price level may be adjusted accordingly to weaken price competition and place more emphasis on technological advancement.
In the existing scoring standards, the items and scores are as follows: investment capacity 15 points, achievements 20 points, technological advancement 20 points, technical scheme 10 points, price level 30 points, and industrial transformation contribution 5 points. For enterprises that have already reached a certain scale, the first few standards basically do not show much difference, so only the price can be compared, and the price level accounts for a significantly higher proportion.
“Under the existing scoring standards, price competition has become an important aspect, which contradicts the original intention of the Leading Runner program. We should pay more attention to technological advancement and the improvement of conversion efficiency, especially to provide key support for technologies with broad application prospects but are not yet mature, to find a breakthrough for the next generation of photovoltaic technology; the entry threshold for Leading Runner can also be raised, and patent technologies can be included in the scoring threshold,” said a senior industry expert in an interview with reporters.
Reporters learned that in response to the above problems, the National Energy Administration will launch a "Super Leading Runner" plan to provide key support for advanced technologies that have the capacity for mass production but whose production capacity has not yet been released due to high costs and market recognition. This includes black silicon solar cells (representative manufacturer: Trina Solar), IBC solar cells (representative manufacturer: Longi Green Energy), N-type double-sided cells (representative manufacturer: JA Solar), and 1500V advanced technology (representative manufacturer: Sungrow Power Supply), which will be strong competitors.
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