Green development in an old revolutionary base

Amid the rolling hills of Baiwen Town in Linxian County, Lvliang City, rows of blue photovoltaic panels at the Baiwen 34MW Poverty Alleviation Photovoltaic Power Station shimmer under the sun, forming a picturesque contrast with the newly sprouting vegetation.

Once a deeply impoverished county in Shanxi Province, Linxian County has leveraged this key project under the 13th Five-Year Plan to achieve a dual breakthrough—boosting incomes while reducing carbon emissions.

Before 2020, during the initial phase of the PV poverty alleviation, the sector faced challenges such as unstable and intermittent returns, as well as low efficiency in the integrated use of land, largely due to technological limitations and the immature state of the industry.

Today, technological innovation and industrial-scale development have reshaped the photovoltaic landscape. The “PV+” model has evolved from a simple overlay into a refined, technology-driven collaborative system, unlocking a broader range of development opportunities.

A Multi-Dimensional Industry Powers Rural Revitalization

Located in the heart of the Loess Plateau, Linxian County is characterized by its rugged terrain and crisscrossing gullies. Driving along the winding, narrow mountain roads to the joint village power station in Baiwen Town, one is greeted by a vast “sea of blue” spanning over 1,200 mu (approx. 200 acres) of loess ridges—a truly breathtaking sight.

With a total investment of 250 million yuan, the station is equipped with domestically produced 330Wp polycrystalline silicon modules and fixed mounting structures. Twenty 1.5MWp solar arrays stretch across six administrative villages in Baiwen Town. Since its connection to the grid in 2018, the station has generated an average of 51 million kilowatt-hours annually, yielding 43.6 million yuan in yearly revenue. It has directly contributed to stable income growth for 53 poverty-stricken villages and 4,997 low-income households.

How can solar-generated revenue be maximized? The station operates a secondary distribution mechanism for its income. Under this model, 85% of the photovoltaic assistance revenue is allocated to villages according to Linxian County’s policy, with a focus on funding public welfare positions and community projects. In addition to support for public welfare jobs, small-scale, public initiatives, and incentive subsidies, the funds can also be used for rural industry development, infrastructure improvement, better living conditions, and basic public services.

Meanwhile, Linxian County has adapted its strategies to local conditions by exploring a three-dimensional economic model that integrates “power generation above, cultivation below.” Through collaboration between Linxian Yuhang Traditional Chinese Medicine Planting Co., Ltd. and Kangyu Green Energy Cooperative, impoverished households have been organized to cultivate Chinese medicinal herbs such as Anemarrhena asphodeloides and Bupleurum. This model has generated an additional annual income of over 300,000 yuan. In revitalizing idle land resources, the initiative has also enhanced agricultural value through large-scale, specialized cultivation.

Photovoltaic agriculture is an innovative form of integrated land use that combines solar power generation with agricultural production and related infrastructure. It not only achieves spatial synergy between “farming” and “photovoltaics,” but also ensures year-round productivity across seasons. To a great extent, this model resolves the long-standing bottleneck of land acquisition in PV project development.

Notably, the current practice of “PV + agriculture” has evolved from simple stacking to refined, technology-driven coordination. Leveraging smart sensing systems that monitor real-time light intensity, humidity, temperature, and other environmental factors, operators can dynamically adjust the tilt angles and spacing of photovoltaic panels. This ensures both optimal power generation and a precisely calibrated microclimate that promotes healthy crop growth beneath the panels.

Sunshine Dividends Weave a Secure Net for Targeted Assistance

From relying on the whims of nature to harnessing the power of sunlight, Linxian County has leveraged photovoltaic poverty alleviation as a fulcrum to drive a green transformation in this former revolutionary base. At present, the county’s PV projects generate 400 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, bringing in 250 million yuan in revenue and creating jobs for 11,000 people. This has fostered a virtuous cycle of income generation, ecological improvement, and industrial upgrading.

A new-type power system serves as a key pillar for the green and low-carbon transition of the energy sector. At this pivotal stage of ecological civilization construction, Linxian’s development model contributes tangible momentum to energy transformation, rural revitalization, and the achievement of China’s “dual carbon” goals.

The PV installations now scattered across the county’s vast farmlands have not only boosted household incomes but also safeguarded local ecosystems. As the industry expands, accommodating the large-scale integration of distributed PV systems requires sustained advances in the intelligence and informatization of power grid infrastructure.

On the cost front, the price of PV modules has dropped to 0.7 yuan per watt, and the initial investment for ground-mounted PV systems now averages around 3 yuan per watt—over 60% lower than in the early days of deployment. In terms of efficiency, mass-produced N-type solar cells now routinely exceed 24% in conversion efficiency. When paired with smart inverters and tracking mounts, energy yields under the same solar conditions have improved markedly.

More critically, breakthroughs in energy storage have addressed the intermittency bottleneck long associated with PV generation. Over the past decade, the cost of lithium battery energy storage systems has fallen by 90%. By shifting loads between peak and off-peak periods, projects can now see a 30% to 50% increase in overall profitability.

With growing technological and cost advantages, the path to rural revitalization is expanding beyond single-source electricity revenue into diversified “PV+” models: “PV+Agriculture” supports vertically integrated agricultural ecosystems through precision operations, enhancing productivity and ecological benefits; “PV + Rural Tourism” blends green energy landscapes with cultural and tourism assets, fostering an immersive experience economy; “PV + Energy Storage” underpins smart microgrids that strengthen local energy autonomy and resilience.

These shifts reflect the PV industry’s evolution from early-stage, aid-based “transfusions” into a capacity-building, self-sustaining model of empowerment. By connecting energy, agriculture, tourism, and other rural development sectors through technological linkages, the industry is injecting lasting green momentum into the engine of rural revitalization.

The author, Jin Zhe, is an assistant research fellow of the Research Center for Energy Transition and Social Development, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University.