The Study of Germany's Journey of Solar Photovoltaic Power Price Reduction and its Enlightenment for China's PV Industry

In recent years,China plans to develop domestic Photovoltaic( PV) electricity. However,current fiscal subsidy and simple PV power price have not met the demand of developing PV in large scale. Germany has a large PV power market. From2000 to 2011,Germany realized large scale PV development through a series of supporting policies. Meanwhile,from 50 Euro cent /kWh to 20 Euro cent /kWh,its PV power price has reduced by 60%,and gets close to market price. To explain the phenomenon above,we studied Germany's PV policies' influence over PV installed capacity and prices' competitiveness through the way of investment and return analysis method. We found that German PV's Feed- in Tariff decreased through three- phase of start,development and adjustment. Meanwhile,with its transparent and precise industrial policies,German PV accumulated capacity increased to 24 820 MWp in 2011,325 times of the number in 2000. German grid utilities' cost from a high PV purchase price is diluted by all the power end- users in Germany. This structure needs little fiscal subsidy,and makes the whole PV development more sustainable. Learning from German experience and based on current status of China's PV,we need to formulate a sound the PV power price system to realize a large- scale installation of PV in China. We also need better PV supporting policies to strengthen investor confidence in a sound return expectation.