In case you missed it, Suntech Power Holdings Co. and state-owned Huadian New Energy Development Co., Ltd. (HNE) are partnering up for a large-scale solar plant in Jiangsu Province. They’re in a rush to get the 10MW plant up and running so they can take advantage of Jiangsu’s feed-in-tariff policy that provides Rmb2.15/kWh for ground-mount solar projects completed in 2009.

Wuxi, Jiangsu-based Suntech is taking a small equity stake in the project. Look for more of this in the future as Chinese policymakers try to find ways to increase incentives for demand-side projects in China. Although the country is a huge exporter of PV technology, it is hardly a big consumer -- and it so wants to be an upstanding world citizen with a teeny weeny carbon footprint, rather than the US-style belcher it is today.

Chinese policymakers think they can balance out the supply-demand equation by pinching off cheap loans to poly-crystalline makers while at the same time encouraging power companies like HNE to develop renewable energy projects in partnerships with PV suppliers. Jiangsu Province has been one of the few to pony up incentives for soloar projects with a cap of 240MW. Some believe it will take awhile for more of this largesse to come – possibly years – and that this will hinder development of the domestic solar market. This will depend on the extent to which the Chinese government can prime the pump, a trend we’ll be watching at RedTech. So far, there's been a lot of talk and less action.