The politics of curtailment: multi-level governance and solar photovoltaic power generation in China

ABSTRACT

The rise of China’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, and the concomitant curtailment problem, provides an opportunity to reconsider China’s industrial governance. It is argued here that the curtailment is intertwined with the multi-level character of China’s energy governance. Borrowing the insights of multi-level governance (MLG), we identify the relevant stakeholders situated at different levels and clarify their positions and considerations concerning the solar PV industry. MLG analysis reveals that curtailment in China’s solar PV industry was primarily the result of uncoordinated development at different levels – sub-provincial, provincial, national, and international. China’s response to the curtailment problem is then examined, considering whether such policy adjustments will contribute to greater societal participation, changes in development ideas, an improved coordination mechanism, or alternative institutional arrangements.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar photovoltaic
• curtailment
• energy governance
• multi-level governance
• China

Acknowledgments

We thank the three referees as well as Professor Anthony Zito for their insightful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Guanglong Wang for his valuable discussions with us. The article also benefited from Professor Christopher Rootes’ suggestions and revisions. We are also grateful to Professor Yapeng Zhu for his support and encouragement in conducting this research. The National Social Science Fund of China supported this work (Grant No. 16CZZ034).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [No. 16CZZ034].