In recent years, East China's Shandong province has used photovoltaic power as an important means to optimize the local energy structure. Adapted to local conditions, the province also promotes photovoltaic construction by utilizing resources such as enterprise factories, rural residences and idle ponds with the aim to realize the coordinated development of photovoltaic power generation, new energy, animal husbandry, and leisure and entertainment.

Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid, with the ambition to tap into its technological resources and corporate advantages, is working together with local governments to promote the photovoltaic development plan enacted by the city government and to launch the project across all the cities and counties in the province.

After defining the available capacity station by station, line by line and substation by substation and making construction plans annually, it has promoted multiple benefits including energy transformation, grid security and social investment.

As a representative project, in the factory of Dong'e Ejiao - China's renowned donkey-hide gelatin producer - the neatly arranged rooftop photovoltaic panels reflect the blue sky under the sunlight. Employees from Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid have been assisting the workers there in inspecting switch equipment and photovoltaic circuits.

Dong'e Ejiao is located in Dong'e county, Liaocheng city. The company's self-invested rooftop distributed photovoltaic power generation project has a total capacity of 3.37 megawatts.

The project utilizes the company's idle rooftop area to install photovoltaic components, with an annual electricity generation of around 3.5 million kilowatt-hours, which can meet its own consumption and save approximately 4.5 million yuan ($620,217) in electricity costs annually.

Wu Mingzhe, a staff member of Shandong Liaocheng Power Supply Company of State Grid, said the project will continue to operate for eight years and is calculated to save 1,280 metric tons of standard coal, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3,300 tons and reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 105 tons, which showcases significant energy-saving and emission-reducing benefits.

"Currently, more than 20 percent of the electricity consumed in our industrial park comes from photovoltaic power generation, and it is seldom affected during peak electricity consumption periods. The photovoltaic panels can directly absorb solar energy, providing thermal insulation for the factory while effectively reducing building energy consumption. Our factory area has become a real energy-saving 'green factory'," said Ren Jie, a maintenance staff member at Dong'e Ejiao Group's photovoltaic power station.