Huaneng Renewables secured permits for just 50 MW of grid parity solar in first half

With rival utility China Power having recently trumpeted progress on its 500 MW grid parity solar demonstration project, Huaneng Renewables today revealed it has barely dipped its toes into the water when it comes to unsubsidized PV.

That may not come as a huge surprise given wind power projects supply the overwhelming majority of Huaneng’s installed capacity but the Chinese ‘big five’ electric utility – a subsidiary of the state-owned China Huaneng Group – nevertheless boasted a 931.5 MW solar portfolio at the end of June.

The first-half figures released today by the power company revealed Huaneng secured just 50 MW of grid parity solar capacity during the first six months of the year, alongside a further 100 MW of project development agreements, presumably subsidized.

Huaneng operates solar projects across 12 Chinese provinces, with portfolios ranging in scale from 255 MW of generation capacity in Qinghai and 220 MW in Inner Mongolia down to 1 MW in Henan. The first-half figures released to the Hong Kong exchange where Huaneng is listed did not separate out business performance by generation technology.

The utility generated increased profits of RMB3.09 billion (US$432 million) in the first half and a current-assets-to-liabilities deficit of RMB12 billion is not so much of a concern when being bankrolled by Beijing. Of those balance sheet figures, Huaneng had RMB3.28 billion in the bank at the end of June and RMB23 billion of borrowings due for repayment within a year as part of its RMB50.85 billion debt pile.