This paper discusses one of China's targeted poverty alleviation programs, namely the Solar Energy for Poverty Alleviation Program (SEPAP). SEPAP is an important and innovative policy that enables poor households to earn additional income by installing solar panels and selling the generated electricity to the grid. However, there are still some doubts regarding the actual effects of SEPAP. Based on the results of 30 semi-structured interviews with village leaders and local government officials in Jinzhai County, China, we explore in-depth the development stages and the types of SEPAP. In addition, we discuss the governance challenges of SEPAP implementation in Jinzhai County, including poor construction quality, maintenance difficulties, inadequate maintenance service, and delays in the payment of government subsidies. We also discuss how the local government has worked together with both the upper levels of government and the poor households to address some of these challenges.
In this paper we study the Solar Energy for Poverty Alleviation Program (SEPAP) in China, which aims to increase the 3,000 Yuan annually for poor people by installing solar panels. SEPAP was initially launched in 2014 and officially ended in 2020 when President Xi announced that absolute poverty was eliminated in China. During the 6 years, China built and put into operation 26.49 million kilowatts of solar PV systems, benefiting 1,472 counties, 138,091 villages, and 4.18 million poor households. We propose a sustainable assessment framework and apply the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) to evaluate individual-level SEPAP in Jinzhai County, China, based on the findings of 80 semi-structured interviews with professionals and poor households. When examining SEPAP sustainability, we discover that the economic dimension is the most crucial one, with income, employment, training for the poor, and solar panel quality being the most weighted sub-indicators. In 2021, SEPAP could increase by roughly 2,700 Yuan for poor households, which is 90% achieved the governmental goals. We obtain a “Medium-high” outcome for the individual-level SEPAP. We provide two policy recommendations for maintenance work that will help the poor maintain a steady income.
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