The paper first provides an overview of the current status of PV industry development in China, including the penetration speed, the market segments and the value chain. Further, it reviews the experience of governmental interventions composed of the legal framework, market incentives and manufacturing policies for lessons learning. After the Renewable Energy Law took effect in 2006, PV penetration was accelerated. Capital subsidies and feed-in tariffs, which were still in a trial stage, public bidding and the cooperation among relevant Ministries played important roles. A series of public R&D projects provided elemental technologies and meanwhile the preferential tax policies encouraged PV R&D nationwide. Then the paper looks into the future prospects, based on the technical potential, the national indicative targets in 2020, and the energy planning considering the governmental targets of energy transition and CO2 mitigation. Consequently we analyze problems impeding the future development based on evidences. For instance, there was no predetermined degression of the capital subsidy to push cost reduction; the budget and the organization of public PV R&D were insufficient. Finally, we propose some recommendations on improving policy interventions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.