Between January 2020 and April 2020, a total of 326.97 MW of residential solar PV capacity come online in 11 provinces of China and qualified for state financial subsidies, as reported by the International Energy Network/PV Headlines.
These projects are located in the Chinese provinces of Shanxi, Shandong, Gansu, Chongqing, Guangdong, Jianxi, Hunan, Jilin, Beijing, Jiangsu and Inner Mongolia. Of these, Shandong installed the largest capacity of the lot with 269.059 MW accounting for 82.3% of the total. In the month of April 2020, Shandong's additions in this segment were an aggregate of 171.478 MW.
With effect from June 1, 2020, the country is to bring down subsidies for residential, commercial and industrial systems with as much as 56% cut on annual basis for residential solar systems alone.
As the COVID-19 pandemic's impact is curbed and weakened in China, the report writers believe residential solar is expected to usher in a wave of installed capacity in Q2/2020. While there are very different views from analysts on the Chinese market development in 2020, it is clear that the country will be world's largest again and very likely expand its share as solar in Western markets still suffers from COVID-19 impacts (see China Expected To Install 33.4 GW Solar in 2020).
Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) in March 2020 announced RMB 1.5 billion as the total amount reserved to be awarded as financial subsidies for large-scale and rooftop solar projects that enter construction within 2020. For rooftop solar, RMB 500 million has been reserved of the total.