Tens of Thousands of Poverty-stricken Households Benefit from Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Projects in Shanxi Province, in which Jinergy "Takes the Lead"
In recent years, among the first batch of pilot provinces of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects, implemented by the State Council Leading Group Office ofPoverty Alleviation and Development of China and the National Energy Administration, Shanxi Province has taken multiple measures and managed to help tens of thousands of poor households out of poverty, making full use of the vast local barren hills and abundant light resources and under the guidance of leading enterprises in Shanxi.By the end of 2017, the installed capacity of grid-connected power generation of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects (hereinafter referred to as the “ Projects”) has been up to 786,600 kilowatts, with 189,600 kilowatts from 713 village-level photovoltaic power plants, and more than 2,000 poverty-stricken villages have benefited, with70,000-plus poor households achieving stable increase in their incomes.
Since 2015, Jinneng Group has invested in and built 351 photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects in districts like Datong, Xinzhou and Lvliang, with a power generation capacity of 334,450 kilowatts and a range of 47,000 households. As a clean energy business sector subsidiary of Jinneng Group, Jinergy actively participates in the Projects through its in-depth cooperation with local governments, its high-quality and high efficiency modules and professional engineering construction. Jinergy continues to provide the project with photovoltaic modules that meet Top Runner standards, with their wide applications in various conditions such as ground-based and village-level poverty alleviation power stations, photovoltaic greenhouses, and photovoltaic farms.
According to Dr. Liyou Yang, general manager of Jinergy, the Projects are ones about livelihood and conscience, for which state-owned enterprises should be held accountable to take the lead. Since the quality of the Projects concern whether the poor households can obtain stable income during the 25-year life cycle of the power plant, Jinergy provides the Projects with photovoltaic modules that meet the standards as stipulated in the Top Runner Program, ensures long-term operation of the Projects and aids the poor households in poverty alleviation, taking the improvement of the Projects’quality as the priority in all aspects of the construction.
In recent years, Jinergy has supplied high efficiency modules to key poverty alleviation counties in Shanxi, such as Datong and Fangshan County in Lvliang City. It is those photovoltaic modules with high-output and high-reliability that bring reliable electricity to poor households. For example, the Company has provided a total of 2.5MW high efficiency polycrystalline modules that meet the standards concerning PV as stipulated in the Top Runner Program, for the 2MW Husbandry-Light Complementary Project of the cattle ranch in Yao Tou Village of Luliang City and the 0.5MW Agriculture-Light Complementary Project of Miaoping Village, resulting from the full use of the rich land resources of the cattle ranch and the farm and realizing the three-dimensional value-added utilization of 120mu of land (1mu≈666.666666㎡). Since the operation of the Projects, the annual volume of power generation has reached 3 million kilowatt-hours, which makes it possible for about 500 poor households in the local area to obtain stable green income in the next 20 years.
With its many years’ experience in the projects, Jinergy believes that the development of photovoltaic agriculture, with the normal growth of crops, improvement of agricultural efficiency and income as its prerequisite, needs to be adapted to local conditions, and avoid the phenomenon that the PV power generation equipment and crops compete for the light. For example, on the top of a ranch, or on farmland where crops not in favor of light are grown, is installed photovoltaic power generation equipment.
In addition to full consideration given to the compatibility and balanced profitability between photovoltaic power generation and agricultural planting, the quality of the Projects itself is still an important factor related to poverty alleviation gains. Yang Liyou said: "In essence, there is no essential difference between the Projects and the Top Runner Program. Technical indicators for the top runners are set to ensure the advancement of the Top Runner Program, so similarly the corresponding indicators could be set as well to ensure the quality of the Projects.
