China has begun a 6-year poverty alleviation program through photovoltaic production, running to 2020, with Shanxi province being one of the first pilot sites, in its Hunyuan and Tianzhen counties, near the city of Datong.

This poverty alleviation project involves the National Energy Administration and Poverty Alleviation and Development Office, which will build photovoltaic power stations using rural agricultural resources, such as the abandoned greenhouses, then turn them over to poor families to manage to increase their incomes.

To get the necessary capital for the project, the central government is handling the fund raising, which includes national subsidies, local government aid, soft bank loans, and private investment for power plants that are key points in the country's annual photovoltaic industry development plan.

These plants are designed to bring stable income to the poor, for at least 25 years and are part of the country's new move to combine poverty alleviation, new energy utilization and emissions reductions.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw

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