Political Hurdles To Photovoltaic Electricity Generation In China

Global warming and climate change are threatening our world. Record-breaking temperatures year after year, rising sea levels, increasing and ever severe droughts, desertification, and fiercer storms hitting coastal cities are just some examples of the frightening new trends brought about by climate change and global warming. In order to slow and eventually bring these trends to a halt, it is imperative that we consolidate and unite our efforts to adopt measures towards reducing our emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Owing to the high levels of carbon dioxide emissions that stem from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels as our primary sources of energy supply, such policies and measures to constrain carbon dioxide must promote greater use of low carbon renewable energy resources, such as photovoltaic electricity generation. However, the fragmented authoritarianism present within the structure of China’s political system is contrary to the mutual understanding, coordination and united efforts required to support the adoption of such policies. As a result, this presents a serious hurdle to the development of photovoltaic electricity generation in China. Specifically, political hurdles as defined in this thesis refer to those hurdles brought about by various policies, laws, regulatory departments, state-owned enterprises, government organs and the complex relationships between them all. In other words, those obstacles brought about by inconsistencies among the administrative, bureaucratic, and regulatory structures. But China’s hurdles to photovoltaic electricity generation are not limited solely to the political or governmental sphere, rather, its development is also confronted by several economic and technological obstacles and challenges. Therefore, this thesis will also analyze these two aspects. In addition, photovoltaic electricity generation in China has also benefited from a fair amount of political support, from the Renewable Energy Law to feed-in tariffs to other policies and measures that encourage its development. Although this paper emphasizes political hurdles, political support cannot be overlooked, because both are crucial to the present and future development of photovoltaic electricity generation.This thesis centers on political hurdles to photovoltaic electricity generation in China, and attempts to answer the following three questions. First, is photovoltaic electricity generation indeed being obstructed by the structure of the Chinese government and bureaucracy? Second, do so such obstacles exceed political support for photovoltaic electricity generation? Third, do political obstacles exceed the scale of economic or technical challenges? In order to answer these questions, this study begins by employing the theories of gradualism and fragmented authoritarianism to illustrate the lengthy existence and source of political hurdles. Essentially, China’s use of gradualism, namely gradual reforms, since the beginning of the Reform and Opening Up period has exacerbated fragmented authoritarianism, that is to say the fragmented authority among and desire of various government bodies to collect and preserve their power and influence. As a result, opposing influences among the participants in the electricity sector (such as the National Grid Company or the former State Electricity Regulatory Commission) have combined to form obstacles. Next, this paper analyzes the additional economic and technical challenges facing photovoltaic electricity generation as well as the inseparable links of these challenges to political obstacles, with special importance attached to the power to set electricity prices and feed-in tariffs. This study then examines whether or not China’s recent policies and measures regarding photovoltaic electricity generation still contain political hurdles. China’s recent development in photovoltaic electricity generation is in part due to encouraging measures and policies of the last few years, yet deep-rooted problems and hurdles still exist. Finally, using Jiangsu Province as a case, this thesis utilizes the process tracing method to analyze the steps involved in the approval process for photovoltaic electricity generation for indications of political obstacles. This case points out that Jiangsu Province has a more supportive environment than most other places in China, and yet still the presence of political hurdles remains an important problem. This study reaches two conclusions. The first answers the first question posed above, and confirms the existence of political hurdles to photovoltaic electricity generation in China, while the second conclusion answers the third question by asserting that such hurdles also exceed those of an economic or technical nature. However, in regards to the second question, further research is needed to determine whether such political hurdles exceed political support for photovoltaic electricity generation.