Project undertaker will be provided a franchise by the NEA to operate the power plant for 25 years.
There will be 38 competitors at the open bid, consisting of a Germany-based company and a Denmark-based one as well as 36 China-based enterprises including China Power Investment Corporation, China Huaneng Group, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited.
For the project in Gansu province, the Chinese government will offer a feed-in tariff rate of below RMB2 per kilowatt-hour, possibly as low as RMB1.7-1.8 per klowatt-hour under intensive competition. Reduction in the feed-in tariff is in response to largely decreased international prices of solar energy products since the fourth quarter of 2008.
In addition to the three solar power projects across China, the government of Qinghai province in western China will set up a 1 gigawatt solar plant in a desert area and the government of Yunnan Province in southwestern China plans to build a 166 megawatt plant near its capital city.
