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Government initiatives are making strides to alter China's fossil fuel dependence with a series of desert projects and new solar goals. In the Gobi Desert, six large-scale projects are being built and in Beijing, the new 2011 solar capacity target was raised to 2GW.

China Daily reported [5] that the National Energy Administration is planning on increasing their current 140MW solar capacity by fifteenfold in two years. China will expand subsidies around to around $.15 USD (1.09 yuan) per kWh, according to their source, and recently revised their 2020 target to 20 GW.

The new policy is expected to assist the solar market-- one that is floundering under credit difficulties and a surplus of solar panels. According to the deputy director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, Li Junfeng, higher subsidies (1.3 or 1.5 yuan per kWh) for ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems are needed to spur the demanded development.

China also recently worked to encourage rooftop solar. In March, they implemented a subsidy of 20 yuan (currently just under $2USD) per watt for building-mounted solar PV systems larger than 50 kW.

Reuters previously reported [6] that the subsidies, potentially covering half of installation costs, were popular among developers.

The 2 GW goal could be met in regions in northwest China, such as inner Mongolia or the autonomous Xinjiang Uygur region. Junfeng added that the government would be required to raise incentives if the market was needed to develop faster.

China is also working on creating six desert wind projects, each with the capacity of over 16 large coal-fired power plants. Wind development has exploded in the country, with administration expecting to meet their previous 2020 target by the end of 2010, according to Junfeng.

The administration is working to extract the domestic fossil fuel dependence, due to limited According to a local consultant via the New York Times, on very windy days, only half of generated power can be transmitted.

You can check out the recent New York Times article, "Green Power Takes Root in the Chinese Desert," [7] that also has a lot of great information.