Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 4322: Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: the Business Model Canvas Perspective (Sustainability)

China is a world leader in the global solar photovoltaic industry, and has rapidly expanded its distributed solar photovoltaic (DSPV) power in recent years. However, China’s DSPV power is still in its infancy. As such, its business model is still in the exploratory stage, and faces many developmental obstacles. This paper summarizes and analyzes the main obstacles that China’s DSPV power is facing in its development, using a literature analysis methodology. Then, previous business models, such as host-owned, energy management contract (EMC), and third-party-owned (TPO), were studied using the Business Model Canvas (BMC) as an analytical tool. Moreover, the Lean Canvas (LC) method was used to further conduct a synthesis and comparative analysis with the three models, describing how and to what extent these models can overcome identified obstacles. Finally, the study highlighted the dominant position of EMC model.