A RAFT of measures have been unleashed to open up China's photovoltaic market amid increasing trade tensions with the European Union, according to a State Council meeting yesterday.

The development of the domestic PV sector is also in line with China's initiatives to upgrade industrial operations, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.

China's internationally competitive PV sector has met with difficulties due to subdued overseas demand, the statement said, adding that support must be granted to the PV sector to help it out of this predicament.

China will take more initiatives to promote distributed solar PV power projects to boost PV utilization, it said.

Chinese power suppliers on the grid are urged to prioritize purchases of solar power and buy all available solar power, the statement said.

Power transmission lines linking production facilities and grid companies must be built when a solar power project is under construction, it said, adding that the transmission lines and the power projects must be put into operation at the same time.

China will improve policies to support more solar power facilities with government subsidies in power pricing, the statement said.

The renewable energy fund will be expanded to ensure that more distributed PV projects receive government subsidies in time.