Multi-Layered Capital Subsidy Policy for the PV Industry in China Considering Regional Differences

• Main Authors: Lei Li, Ting Chi, Meng Zhang, Shi Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-01-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: PV industry; subsidy policy; regional difference; green growth
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/1/45

As a country with huge energy consumption, China has been paying more and more attention to green growth in recent years. Several subsidy policies have been conducted to boost the photovoltaic (PV) industry so far. However, as a matter of fact, there are 31 provinces and municipalities (PM) in mainland China, and the economic condition, environmental resources and energy structure of each PM are all significantly different, which leads to a discrepancy of PV efficiency among regions. This paper proposes that the subsidies for the PV industry should be considered mainly from three aspects: the PM’s economic condition, energy efficiency and environmental responsibility. We built 19 evaluation indicators involving economic, environmental and energy factors, allocated weight to each indicator using the entropy weight method and sorted the 31 evaluation objects by TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution) method. Additionally, through an empirical study, we obtained the subsidy proportion for each PM. The result could make much of a contribution to the green growth of different regions and to the whole country.