Problems and Adjustments of Renewable Energy Legislation in China

• Author: Weidong Yang
• Pages: 339-340

Renewable Energy Legislation in China 339

X JEAIL 2 (2017)

Weidong Yang

∗∗

The abandonment of wind and PV power has become the Achilles heel that

restricts the development of renewable energy in China, which is associated with

institutional defects in China’s Renewable Energy Law. As a priority area in energy

development, renewable energy is not substantialized. Instead, it is undermined

because the guarantee system for purchasing electricity, generated by the use

of renewable energy resources, in full amount, is alienated by lower-level laws.

The unestablished mandatory legal obligations and responsibilities in power grid

transmission networks lead to difficulties in renewable energy power generation,

transmission, and accommodation. Due to the lack of continuity and stability in

the feed-in tariff and subsidy policies for renewable energy, investors cannot have

reasonable expectations. China’s Renewable Energy Law must be remedied to correct

these existing institutional defects, and to solve the problem of wind and PV power

abandonment in order to promote the healthy development of renewable energy.

Keywords

China Renewable Energy Law, Institutional Defects, Power Grid

Mandatory Investment Obligation, Legislative Adjustment

∗ Although the term ‘renewable energy’ in Article 2 of China’s “Renewable Energy Law” includes wind energy, solar

energy, hydropower, biomass energy, geothermal energy, ocean energy, and other non-fossil forms of energy, this

paper will focus on the legal issues in the development and utilization of two types of non-hydro renewable energy such

as wind and solar power.

∗∗ Associate Professor of Law at the School of Humanities of North China Electric Power University; Attorney- at-Law

(Partner at Sunshine Law Firm); Visiting Scholar of The American University’s Washington School of Law. Ph.D.

(CASS). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2422-9243. The author may be contacted at: ywd@sunshinelaw.com.

cn /Address: No.2 Beinong Road, Zhuxinzhuang, Dewai, Beijing, P.R. China 102206.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2017.10.2.01

Problems and Adjustments

of Renewable Energy

Legislation in China∗

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