China will pay 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in subsidies for power generated from renewable sources this year, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.
 
The funds will be allocated by provincial financial authorities to grid companies which purchase renewable power from generators at above-market tariffs.
 
Of the funds for this year, 5.85 billion yuan will go to wind power, 723 million yuan for solar power, and 2.02 billion yuan used to subsidize electricity generated from biomass, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
 
Earlier this month, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, asked grid operators to pay overdue subsidies to renewable power developers for the period from October 2010 to April 2011, following a two-year delay.
 
Grid companies are required to pay subsidies - a fixed amount allocated on top of the benchmark tariffs for coal-fired power in each region - while they can collect a surcharge from consumers to finance the payment.
 
But the payment has been halted in some provinces because the surcharge failed to cover the subsidies, creating cash flow pressure on many developers.

PetroChina reported turnover growth of 9.9% to RMB1.046 trillion for the first half of 2012 from RMB952.2 billion for the first half of 2011.
 
"This was primarily due to the increase in the selling prices and changes in the sales volume of the Group's major products including crude oil, natural gas, gasoline and diesel," the company argued.
 
In the first half of 2012, crude oil output of the Group amounted to 452.4 million barrels, representing an increase of 1.5% from the same period in 2011.
 
Marketable natural gas output of PetroChina amounted to 1,292.4 billion cubic feet, representing an increase of 9.0% from the same period in 2011.
 
The oil and gas equivalent output of the group amounted to 667.9 million barrels, representing an increase of 3.8% from the same period in 2011.
 
The average realised crude oil price in the first half of 2012 was US$107.98 per barrel, representing an increase of 6.26% from US$101.62 per barrel in the first half of 2011.
 
The Refining and Chemicals segment incurred a loss from operations amounting to RMB28.87 billion, of which a loss of RMB23.3 billion was attributable to the refining operations and a loss of RMB5.57 billion was attributable to the chemicals operations.