Thanks to an abundance of natural resources, Suanzili village in Xiaojiazhuang town, Chiping district of Liaocheng, Shandong province, is pursuing efforts to develop clean electricity — with an emphasis on photovoltaic power.

The village site is mostly saline-alkali and waterlogged land that used to be the old course of the Yellow River, making it unsuitable for agricultural production. However, it has favorable sunlight conditions, and under the stewardship of Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid, Chiping Xinjiayuan Photovoltaic Agriculture invested 180 million yuan ($24.6 million) to build a photovoltaic power station with a designed capacity of 40 megawatt-hours.

The station, which began operating in 2017, has an average annual power generation of 49 million kilowatt-hours, equivalent to the energy generated by 16,000 metric tons of standard coal annually. Last year, it generated operating income of 40.82 million yuan.

"The photovoltaic power station was built on 0.8 square kilometers of saline-alkali land in a location where the annual land transfer fee can exceed 1,650,000 yuan per sq km. The power generation company sets aside 3.6 million yuan from the annual power generation income for rural revitalization special funds, achieving double income growth for the villagers and the collective society," said Li Dengxin, Party secretary of the village.

Liaocheng city is in an area with abundant solar and wind energy resources, making it suitable for large-scale development and construction of new energy facilities. Photovoltaics are the main channel for that development, and after years of effort Liaocheng's new energy industry is now entering a period of high-quality and rapid development. Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid has simplified procedures for the application and launch of photovoltaic power generation projects and sought market-oriented projects, promoting their rapid development.

"To ensure the efficient and orderly grid connection and power generation of photovoltaic projects, we optimized the grid connection process for photovoltaic power generation projects and provide high-quality services in project application, design and construction, and grid connection acceptance in order to accelerate the grid connection of such projects." said Hu Xiaodong, general manager of Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid.