There’s so much (rehashed) news about solar in China this week that I’m reaching for the sunscreen. First Solar’s prez is here, signing important-looking documents with commemorative pens that confirm something we already knew months ago – that it’s building the world's largest solar farm, roughly the size of Manhattan, in the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. The Ministry of Finance also re-announced (with a bit more detail) that it is spending Rmb20 billion ($2.93 billion) on 294 solar power projects with total generating capacity of 642 megawatts over the next 2-3 years. And did you hear about those clever guys at Suntech, opening a manufacturing plant in the US? Great PR.

First Solar’s Inner Mongolia plant will be 2 gigawatts and once completed by 2019, it'll produce enough electricity to power 3 million homes. It’s part of China’s “Golden Sun” project, which the MoF “re-announced” on Sunday but with a little bonus: China is increasing the capacity by nearly 30 percent more than the minimum target Beijing set in July.

By our tally, Operation Golden Sun looks like this:

232 projects: a lot of small installations with total generating capacity of 290 MW. Most will be built by major industrial and commercial firms, which will use all the power in-house.

27 independent PV plants: Total capacity of 46 MW. These will be built in China’s remote regions that have no power supply and should meet the needs of more than 300,000 residents.

35 projects: Total capacity of 306 MW. These will be utility-sized plants, whose power output would be fed into grid networks.

The MoF is going to subsidize 50 percent of the solar power projects and also kick in for related power transmission and distribution systems that connect to grid networks. That increases to 70 percent of cost for independent solar projects in powerless regions.

First Solar’s 2GW project will be built in multiple phases, beginning with the 30MW Phase 1. Phases 2, 3 and 4 are to be 100MW, 870MW, and 1,000MW, respectively. Phases 2 and 3 are to be completed by 2014 and Phase 4 is to be completed by 2019. The project is part of a planned 11.95GW New Energy Industry Demonstration Zone in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. The New Energy Industry Demonstration Zone is expected to combine solar, wind, hydroelectric and biomass power sources to provide a steady supply of renewable energy to the region that includes Beijing.

China is expected to raise its 2020 solar power generation target more than fivefold to at least 10 gigawatts (Some say/hope 20GW). With incentives, it’s expected that over 2GW in new solar capacity will be installed as early as 2011, up from just over 100MW in 2008. That would help mop up some of the overcapacity in the supply chain that  I wrote about in Sex, Lies and China Solar Capacity.

China has more than 800GW of power generating capacity, with about three quarters of that coming from coal-fired plants.

SHAMELESS PLUG/HONESTDISCLOSURE: I work for RedTech Advisors (China) Ltd., which offersresearch, investment and strategy services related to China'sConsumerTech, CleanTech and MedTech markets.  For more info, please seewww.redtechadvisors.com.