Individual solar power connected to power grid

The first distributed solar power project in Tianjin owned by an individual was connected to the grid on Saturday.

The connection means public resources are getting more involved in the traditional public sector of electricity generation, experts said.

Li Ting, publicity officer at Tianjin Binhai Electricity Company, a branch of the State Grid Corp, China's largest State-owned power utility, said the company had received and approved an individual application from a local resident, Dong Qiang, who requested to connect his own panels to the grid and sell the power generated at home.

Dong said he expects the panels, in addition to family use, can generate extra electricity to be sold to the local grid. Tianjin previously set the price for individual electricity at 0.41 yuan ($0.07) per kilowatt-hour, a little higher than the China's electricity price.

He said his application for self-power generation was received by the local grid company within 10 days and he is planning to expand his household panel to three kilowatts on the roof of his house in Binhai.

Dong said he invested less than 70,000 yuan and he expects to recover the cost within 10 years. Each year the panels can reduce more than five tons of carbon emissions.

Dong is the first individual in Tianjin who applied to join the distributed solar power project, after the State Council said in December that the government would encourage distributed power generation projects of solar power and other small-energy sources such as wind, natural gas and bio-energy.

Last year, Beijing accepted the first individual application from a local resident, Ren Kai, who connected his own panels to the grid. Ren sells the extra electricity to the grid for 1 yuan per kilowatt-hour, in addition to his family's daily power consumption.