China's war against pollution could boost solar energy: study, East Asia News & Top Stories



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SHANGHAI (REUTERS) – China's efforts to reduce chronic air pollution could increase its solar energy production capacity by 13% by allowing more solar rays to reach the Earth, according to a study released Tuesday, July 9th.

China's photovoltaic potential declined by an average of 15 percent between 1960 and 2015 due to pollution, climate scientists in Switzerland, the Netherlands and China said in a report published by Nature Energy magazine.

The return to radiation levels in the 1960s could increase energy production by 12 to 13 percent, the researchers said, strengthening Beijing's efforts to increase the contribution of solar energy to the national grid and reduce costs.

China is working to reduce suffocating levels of pollution by reducing the use of coal, improving fuel standards, and encouraging cleaner forms of industry and energy. Airborne hazardous particulate matter known as PM2.5 decreased by 42% in 74 major cities from 2013 to 2018.

The total installed solar capacity of the country was 170 gigawatts at the end of 2018, or about 9% of the total generating capacity. Last year, Solar produced 177.5 terawatt hours of electricity, about 2.5% of the total.

China wants to increase the profitability of solar companies to reduce subsidies to renewable energy suppliers, the rapid increase of new capacity creating a late payment to reach 60 billion yuan ($ 11.8 billion) here next year.

The average price paid to solar energy producers has already been reduced from more than one yuan / kWh in 2011 to around 0.3 yuan / kWh this year.

Regulators said earlier this year that subsidies would be reduced to zero by 2021 for onshore wind generators, which means that they would sell electricity at the same price as the sources of electricity. 39, traditional energy. Experts say that the solar could also reach very soon the "parity of the prices of the network".

China is also launching a series of solar and wind power plants without subsidies this year.

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