Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: The Business Model Canvas Perspective
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper "Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: the Business Model Canvas Perspective" is up to date and overall well written. It deals with the distributed photovoltaic solar energy in China. The subject is sound and deserves attention. Nevertheless the treatment given by authors is too much of a literature review.
Authors could start giving an overview of the potential of renewable energy in China, photovoltaic solar energy particularly, it would give a better idea of the market in which would fit the business models. The authors should put more analysis in their work, as the driving force of the renewable energy market and its limits in China. It would be interesting if authors could give a correlation between the present situation of DSPV and the presented business models. It would of a great interest if authors could include the effect of the Chinese market on the global competition and external market.
Considering the above points, we recommend a revision of this manuscript.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: the Business Model Canvas Perspective” (ID: sustainability-557806). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Responds to the reviewer’s comments:
1. Authors could start giving an overview of the potential of renewable energy in China, photovoltaic solar energy particularly, it would give a better idea of the market in which would fit the business models.
We add the potential of renewable energy and the renewable energy market and its limits of China at the beginning in the part of introduction; and we add the potential of photovoltaic solar energy in the second paragraph in the part of introduction.
2. The authors should put more analysis in their work, as the driving force of the renewable energy market and its limits in China.
We add the driving force of the renewable energy market and its limits in China in the first paragraph in the introduction.
3. It would of a great interest if authors could include the effect of the Chinese market on the global competition and external market.
We add the effect of the Chinese market on the global competition and external market in the second paragraph in the part of introduction.
4. It would be interesting if authors could give a correlation between the present situation of DSPV and the presented business models.
I’m so sorry that we can’t provide an extra section to explain the correlation between the present situation of DSPV and the presented business models. But I think the correlation between the present situation of DSPV and the presented business models is already reflected in two aspects: Firstly, in the section 4 of this paper, we describe the main obstacles faced by China's DSPV power during its development in detail, making a logical foundation for subsequent analysis of business model. Secondly, we discuss how and to what extent the three different business models overcame the identified barriers in section 7. According to our analysis, the EMC model can partially reduce institutional and policy barriers, and significantly reduces barriers in financing and profitability, technology, grid-connection, awareness and roof resources. Therefore, the EMC model performs best among the three business models and has the greatest potential in the DSPV power market.
Reviewer 2 Report
This work reports three possible business models for the Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power in China. It is based on literature review and it compares host-owned, energy management
contract (EMC), and third-party-owned (TPO) business model using the Business Model Canvas. Finally the Lean Canvas method was used to draw the final conclusions in which the EMC model seems to posses all the characteristics to well-perform in the expansion of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power in China.
The article is very well written and clear. I do not have any comment on the content. Some typo and mistakes are highlighted in the attached pdf file.
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Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you very much. You are so kind to remind us of the errors concerning our manuscript entitled “Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: the Business Model Canvas Perspective” (ID: sustainability-557806). I have fixed each mistake as follow:
1. Line 99, the word “most” is corrected as “much more”.
2. Line 166, the statements of “changes get over” is corrected as “changes of industrial chain”.
3. Line 292, the word “financing” is corrected as “made financing more difficult”.
4. Line 596, the word “them” refers to “industrial and commercial enterprises and parks”, we changed the sentence as “which adopt EMC model to build PV power plants”.
5. Line 620 and line742, the statement of “needn’t” is corrected as “don’t need to”.
6. But I don’t think the word “is” in line 460 is wrong, because the subject is “core resource”.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript submitted by Xiang Cai et al. presents a comparison study on three different business models, i.e., energy-management contract, host-owned, and third-party-owned, for China's distributed solar photovoltaics.
This work presents a comprehensive articulation on different business models and how they adapt to China's photovoltaic market for different scenarios. The manuscript could provide valuable insights into the future development of the sustainable energy industry in China. Therefore, this work is publishable in the journal. The paper is well organized and presented. I only have a few minor suggestions on how to revise the manuscript, mostly focusing on elaboration of details.
1. Please differentiate the concepts of photovoltaic and distributed solar photovoltaic at the beginning of the manuscript.
2. Line 258: Did the authors use the abbreviations TPO and EMC when doing the literature search? If so, some papers might be overlooked.
3. Please provide the detailed literature information of this study. For example, how many papers have been included? How many of them are in English and Chinese? How many papers in each category? What is the year span of all the papers selected?
4. Line 360: What are the reasons for making the negotiation difficult?
5. Figures 3-5 and Table 2: The resolution of all these figures needs enhancement.
6. Line 427: What are "exclusive stores"? Do the authors mean "private stores"?
7. Lines 430-431: Please briefly explain taopv.cn and WeChat to the international audience.
8. Line 586: Please present the value of the desulfurized thermal power price.
9. Lines 711-712: It is unclear what the "synthesized comparisons" means.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your suggestions concerning our manuscript entitled “Business Models of Distributed Solar Photovoltaic Power of China: the Business Model Canvas Perspective” (ID: sustainability-557806). The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
1. Please differentiate the concepts of photovoltaic and distributed solar photovoltaic at the beginning of the manuscript.
We explain the concept of photovoltaic and distributed solar photovoltaic at the beginning of the third paragraph in the part of introduction.
2. Line 258: Did the authors use the abbreviations TPO and EMC when doing the literature search? If so, some papers might be overlooked.
We search literatures use the full names, that is third-party owed model and energy management contract model. There is no abbreviations in Chinese for TPO and EMC when search Chinese literatures, so we think we don’t leave out papers.
3. Please provide the detailed literature information of this study. For example, how many papers have been included? How many of them are in English and Chinese? How many papers in each category? What is the year span of all the papers selected?
We add the detailed literature information in section 3.
4. Line 360: What are the reasons for making the negotiation difficult?
We add “because it takes too much time and it is difficult for all residents to agree on installing the PV system in the roofs” as the reasons.
5. Figures 3-5 and Table 2: The resolution of all these figures needs enhancement.
We have updated the figures.
6. Line 427: What are "exclusive stores"? Do the authors mean "private stores"?
It means "private stores" and we corrected it as "private stores".
7. Lines 430-431: Please briefly explain taopv.cn and WeChat to the international audience.
We add the explanation as “China's largest website that provides services and transactions of solar photovoltaic system”. The “WeChat” is an APP for social contact in China, and we delete it to make it to be clearer because it is not main channel for energy service companies.
7. Line 586: Please present the value of the desulfurized thermal power price.
We add the explanation of the price as “which ranges from CNY0.25/kWh to CNY0.52/kWh”
8. Lines 711-712: It is unclear what the "synthesized comparisons" means.
The "synthesized comparisons" is corrected as “synthesis comparisons”.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper could overall be improved but it is now in an acceptable form for publication.
