The role of local governments in the development of China's solar photovoltaic industry

Samuel Corwin and Timothy L. Johnson

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 130, issue C, 283-293

Abstract: Leading the world in manufacturing and installations, China's solar PV sector has attracted the attention of academia, government, and business. However, inadequate attention has been paid to the role of local governments in the development of China's domestic solar industry. This paper describes the omnipresent role of local governments in each stage of solar market development, examines the political motivations for this outsized presence, identifies the consequences of excessive local government involvement, and provides policy recommendations to compliment changes being made at the national and local levels. The paper finds that while local government support has enabled China to become the global leader in solar development, it has also led to overproduction and overcapacity. These outcomes are oftentimes the direct result of local governments acting in accordance with their incentive structures. The findings indicate that the future healthy development of China's solar PV market will be dependent upon enforcement of central policy and aligning the policy objectives and incentives between the central and local levels.

Keywords: China; Photovoltaic; Local government; Curtailment; Overproduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519302459
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:130:y:2019:i:c:p:283-293

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.04.009

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().