On 13-14 March 2017, the “All Quality Matters” 2017 Solar Congress and Award Ceremony organized by the TÜV Rheinland Group (TÜV Rheinland) were held in Wuxi, Jiangsu. During the ceremony, Junfeng Li, Director of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, was interviewed on obstacles to the development of the Chinese PV industry, green certification and the credibility of third-party inspection and certification.
In recent years, explained Junfeng Li, China has seen a rapid growth in renewable energy and made great achievements in this field. China is currently actively implementing energy transformation, and has proposed major strategic initiatives to meet the goals for combating climate change established in the Paris Agreement. In 2016, however, problems leading some provinces to discard the possibility of wind power generation and photovoltaic PV power generation showed little sign of easing; in fact, they got worse. In addition, indemnificatory purchasing policies issued by the National Energy Administration were not translated into action. Li Junfeng Li noted that the central government pays considerable attention to the abandonment of wind power generation and photovoltaic PV power generation, requiring renewable energy enterprises to remain up to date with developments in these areas. In addition, the management of electrical power systems should be reformed in line with “green scheduling”, as mentioned in the Renewable Energy Report.
Ensuring clean energy is central to electrical power system reform.
In the last few years, the Chinese PV industry has grown at a staggering rate due to national policies conducive to its development. In 2016, China ranked highest in the world for both newly installed PV power plant capacity, at 34.54 million kilowatts, and accumulated installed capacity, 77.42 million kilowatts. However, problems remain, as the inadequate reform of electrical power systems and insufficient energy transformation continue to hinder the development of the PV industry.
Junfeng Li pointed out that the biggest problem facing China’s energy sector is a relative lack of clean power. Currently, coal-generated power represents 75% of China’s total power supply. To significantly reduce the proportion of coal-generated power, institutional mechanisms must be altered. Only through power system reform can coal-generated power be replaced on a large scale by clean energy.
China’s rapid economic development relies heavily on the excessive exploitation of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, leading to serious environmental pollution and ecological damage, which threaten people's health and survival. As the large-scale exploitation and use of resources persist, environmental problems caused by fossil fuels are becoming increasingly serious. Junfeng Li noted that we must seek forms of alternative energy to support China’s sustainable development. Pushing ahead the supply-side structural reform of electricity requires clean energy alternatives, such as hydropower, wind power and PV power. We need to fundamentally reconfigure China’s energy supply structure by dramatically increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the total energy supply.
The value of third-party institutions lies in their credibility.
As the number of PV power plants and total installed capacity increase, problems impeding the quality of PV power plants are becoming more and more prominent. PV power plant owners are predominantly concerned with operational issues. They are also keen to find ways of ensuring profit throughout the power plant life-cycle and increasing plants’ power generation through inspection and quality assessment.
The life-cycle of a PV power plant is generally 25 years, beginning with the completion of construction. During this life-cycle, several challenges arise to the maintenance of plant operation and actual profits.
Junfeng Li explained that the “professional maintenance and operation services provided by third-party institutions can help to reduce operational risk and human cost in power plants”. Although this is the main affordance of third-party inspection and certification institutions, they “must also possess credibility and truly serve their clients.” With over 100 years of experience, TÜV Rheinland undoubtedly has sufficient credibility. However, many third-party institutions in China have lost their credibility and been shut down. As a result, an atmosphere of social trust is lacking.
Green certification must be enforced with a quota system.
In February, China’s government issued its first batch of green power trading certificates, trialling a voluntary subscription system. This drew attention from new energy generation enterprises and power consumers worldwide. Green certificates are electronic certificates with unique ID codes issued by the government to power generation enterprises for every 1,000 green kilowatt-hours of electricity they produce.
“Green certification to some extent alleviates the pressure on the PV industry caused by a lack of funding from the government. Due to the high cost of PV power, however, investors’ enthusiasm for investment must be stimulated”.
In Junfeng Li’s words, “voluntary green certification is definitely not enough to solve the problems facing the development of renewable energy. This is also why we cannot expect the Hope Project to solve all of the problems with elementary-school education”. He argued that green certification can only achieve its full benefits when implemented with a quota system. “The responsibility for developing renewable energy should be borne by the whole of society. China’s most important task now is to carry out energy transformation to move away from its predominant use of coal-generated power. Green certification alone is not enough. However, green channels and increased green electricity prices may be effective in conjunction with certification”. For example, two cents could be added to the unit price of ordinary electricity for green electricity. “Special groups must meet additional requirements. Most importantly, responsibilities and obligations must be formulated for enterprises and institutions”.
