China’s rural residential photovoltaic system has been greatly developed in recent years. However, most existing researches, are difficult to reflect the real development situation of the whole system.
Residential solar photovoltaic (PV) installations have boomed in China over recent years. However, knowledge about the economic performance of residential PV investments is still limited. Therefore, this study attempts to make a complete economic assessment of residential PV systems at the county-level.
As shown in , since 2013, China’s newly added distributed photovoltaic installed capacity have fluctuated upward, and reached 29.28 GW by 2021, accounting for 53.4% of the total, and exceeding the centralized photovoltaic system for the first time in history.
This paper evaluated the economic performance of residential PV systems at the county-level under the background where the subsidies for solar PV generation are phasing out quickly in China, using scenario analysis and sensitivity analysis. It is found that residential PV investments have broken even all over China, even without any incentives.
Based on the developed mathematical model, this paper assesses the solar irradiation resources and BIPV potential of residential buildings in different climate zones of China. It is found that roofs are the first choice for BIPV installation, followed by south façades, especially in high-latitude cities, and then east and west facades.
Looking forward to 2020, China's new photovoltaic installed capacity is expected to be between 32GW and 45GW, and the installed capacity trend is stable.