China's photovoltaic industry, which is suffering from European and United State's trade protectionism and domestic overcapacity, is expected to reach a turning point, Beijing Business Daily reported on Thursday.

The National Development and Reform Committee has approved 60 photovoltaic projects this year, including seven overseas projects, with installed capacity of about 1.17 million kilowatts. The projects are mainly in Western China, including Qinghai province, Gansu province, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region and Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

However last year, there were only 36 approved projects, with installed capacity of only 0.34 million kw.

The government is hoping to stimulate the domestic photovoltaic market through projects and to help enterprises out of crisis, amid the sluggish global economy and trade protectionism in Europe and the US, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University.

Although the approval of photovoltaic projects was accelerated this year, it is still far from reaching the target of 21 million kW installed capacity by the end of 2015, which was set in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

By the end of 2011, China's total photovoltaic installed capacity was only 3.6 million kW. In order to reach its target in the next three years, China's photovoltaic installed capacity must increase about six times.