Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-03-12 Origin: Site
At the southern foothills of Tongbai Mountain, the rolling hills stretch gently. In Tang Town and Shangshi Town of Suizhou City, numerous villages are scattered at varying elevations, connected by a winding rural road known as the "Tangma Line". The "Tangma Line" has been around for a long time, but it has undergone a transformation. Not only has the road been widened, but photovoltaic street lights have also been installed along the sections passing through villages, facilitating villagers' nighttime activities and providing illumination for passing vehicles.
"The electricity used is all generated by solar energy. This street lamp is set to turn on at night and turn off during the day. On sunny days, the electricity generated during the day can fully supply the needs for the night," a local villager told the reporter of "Huaxia Times".
Reporters found that similar photovoltaic street lights are prevalent in rural areas of Hubei. Many villagers have even moved photovoltaic modules into their homes, connected them to lighting fixtures, and placed them indoors or in the courtyard for illumination. There is a rich variety of similar photovoltaic products. Some villagers also rent out their roofs to operators for installing photovoltaic power stations, thereby earning a fixed income.
Photovoltaic power generation in villages
In a village in Tang Town, Suizhou, a villager rented out the roof of his house, covering an area of approximately 80 square meters, to a photovoltaic operator for a period of 20 years. The villager paid a one-time fee of over 4,000 yuan and also agreed to pay 20 yuan per photovoltaic module annually, which amounts to several hundred yuan in annual income.
Several villagers in the same village have also installed rooftop photovoltaic panels. "The operator approached me, and since I saw others doing it, I agreed. However, the generated electricity is not for personal use but is fed into the grid. It might not be so easy to install later, as the transformer capacity in the village is limited." The villager told reporters that besides installing photovoltaic panels on the roof, the operator also reinforced the overall structure of the house, such as supporting the door beams with steel pipes.
In a village located in Shangshi Town, Suizhou, photovoltaic street lamps are neatly arranged along the narrow village paths. The bright lights shine on the road at night, adding a touch of warmth to the chilly spring. It is the Spring Festival of the Year of the Horse, and young people returning home walk on the wide and bright road, marveling at the tremendous changes in their hometown, which is a completely different scene compared to their childhood memories.
On the third night of the first lunar month in the Year of the Horse, the photovoltaic street lights in the village square of Shangshi Town, Suizhou, turned on punctually. Several elderly ladies danced to the music, while some villagers stopped by and chatted. "Before, there were no street lights, so we all brought our own lights to dance here. Now, conditions are much better. These lights were installed by the village collectively, powered by solar energy, and are environmentally friendly," said a villager.
This cannot be achieved without the support of policies. In promoting the construction of beautiful villages, road lighting, as a key aspect of infrastructure upgrading, is transitioning from traditional grid power supply to green energy. Solar street lights have been included in the subsidy list for beautiful village construction, with support from the central finance and subsidies from local supporting policies. For example, Zhejiang Province provides an annual operation and maintenance subsidy of 50 yuan per lamp for villages that install solar street lights.
Wang Hongzhi, Director of the National Energy Administration, once stated that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the National Energy Administration will deepen the implementation of the rural power grid consolidation and upgrading project, with a total of 25 billion yuan of central budgetary investment arranged, driving the completion of over 800 billion yuan of investment in rural power grids. It will actively promote the development and utilization of distributed renewable energy for the benefit of the people. By the first half of 2025, the installed capacity of household photovoltaics will reach approximately 180 million kilowatts, which can increase farmers' income by about 14 billion yuan annually.
blossom everywhere
A villager directly installed photovoltaic panels in his home. He purchased them at a building materials market at wholesale prices. A small-sized module, battery, and lamp cost just over 70 yuan in total. The photovoltaic module extends out of the window, and the lamp is hung from the eaves, illuminating the entire small courtyard at night. He said, "If it's sunny, the electricity stored during the day can last for 3 days."
A more spectacular photovoltaic scene can be found outdoors, where centralized photovoltaic arrays are scattered throughout the fields along both sides of National Highway 316 connecting Zaoyang and Suizhou. It is understood that in this model, the village collective generally takes the lead in acquiring land, and photovoltaic power station operators provide subsidies to villagers on a per-mu basis.
Compared to the south, the north has earlier and larger-scale applications of centralized photovoltaic (PV) and household PV in rural areas. Reporters have investigated in Hebei and Shandong and found that rooftop PV is more prevalent in local villages, with many cases of "county-wide promotion" by PV enterprises and local governments, as well as numerous livelihood projects incorporating PV projects.
In a resettled community in the initial development zone of Jinan, Shandong, photovoltaic (PV) systems are delivered as standardized livelihood projects. Each household in the community has PV modules installed outside their balconies. Residents told reporters, "The solar panels are connected to water heaters, and a 100L capacity water heater can be heated up to 60℃."
The widespread adoption of photovoltaics can be attributed to the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry chain over the past few years.
The 14th Five-Year Plan represents a period of leapfrog development for the photovoltaic industry. By the end of 2025, China's installed capacity of solar power generation had reached 1200GW, marking a year-on-year increase of 35.4%. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's cumulative new installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation was 4.5 times that of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.
From the manufacturing perspective, by the end of 2020, China's silicon material production capacity stood at 460,000 tons, with silicon wafer, cell, and module production capacities exceeding 200GW. By the end of 2025, China's silicon material production capacity surpassed 3.5 million tons, and the production capacities of silicon wafer, cell, and module all broke through 1,000GW, representing a growth of 3 to 6 times.
According to the report on photovoltaic power generation construction in 2025 released by the National Energy Administration on February 21, 2026, China's newly installed photovoltaic capacity reached 317 million kilowatts in 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 14%. Specifically, 164 million kilowatts were from centralized photovoltaic projects and 153 million kilowatts were from distributed photovoltaic projects.
To achieve carbon peaking by 2030, renewable energy represented by photovoltaics will play a crucial role. Lv Xuedou, advisor to the Zero Carbon Committee and former chief climate change expert of the Asian Development Bank, said in an interview with the reporter of "Huaxia Times": "In the next five years, China's carbon emissions will remain stable with fluctuations from the current level, achieving the goal of carbon peaking and consolidating it. The energy structure will undergo a profound transformation, and the new energy demand will mainly be met by developing renewable energy, including promoting the construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases (such as in the desert and Gobi regions in the west and north) and hydropower construction."
