Analysis of Distributed Photovoltaic Financing: A Case Study Approach of Crowd-funding with Photovoltaic Water Pumping System in Microgrids

Distributed photovoltaic (PV) system is playing an increasingly significant role in the fast growing global PV market, as a renewable power supply source. In rural and remote areas, the integrated PV technology with remote micro-grid offers a potential solution for agriculture and small businesses to access to clean, reliable and efficient energy source. As the cost of solar PV modules continues to show a downward tendency, the distributed PV systems with remote micro-grid are capable to meet growing energy demand with affordable price. Meanwhile, a series of policies and actions have been enacted in China since 2013, to motivate the distributed-generation PV development as equal as large-scale PV development. However, compared to coal-fired power plants or large-scale PV systems, a barrier exists in securing financing of distributed PV systems, which has high up-front costs and the risk of commercializing renewable energy initiatives. Under current market incentives and barriers, this paper studies the existing financing methods in distributed PV systems with remote distributed micro-grids. In comparison with other financing sources, a case study approach is employed with distributed PV water pumping system in China to introduce crowd-funding as a new source of financing in distributed PV systems. Through the SWOT analysis, this paper identifies a capacity for new financial approach of crowd-funding with PVWP deployment. The scenario is modelled for different stakeholders and organization forms that target social network interactions in crowd-funding, and the results provide insights for incentives and policy.