Photovoltaic panels on a hill in Feicheng, Tai'an. [Photo/Tai'anDaily]

Tai'an in Shandong province is bolstering its efforts to boost the integrated development of the photovoltaic and equipment manufacturing industries.

Following the national call for energy transformation, Tai'an has been focusing on developing its photovoltaic capacity, a major clean energy source. Statistics showed that from December 2017 to March 2023, the city's installed photovoltaic capacity increased from 940,000 kilowatt to 2.5 million kW, an increase of 166 percent.

Tai'an combines promoting photovoltaic industry development with ecological environment restoration by setting up photovoltaic panels on barren hills and coal mining subsidence land.

For example, Feicheng, a county-level city in Tai'an, has seven barren mountain photovoltaic power stations with a total installed capacity of 119,500 kW and an annual generating capacity of 140 million kilowatt-hour.

According to the Tai'an municipal bureau of energy, the city plans to arrange 1.4 million kW of centralized photovoltaic power, mainly in coal mining subsidence areas in Xintai and Feicheng, both are county-level cities in Tai'an.

Tai'an is also arranging distributed photovoltaic power by installing equipment on the spare roofs of government buildings, schools, commercial complexes, and mass housing.

For example, Feicheng's Dongdafeng village inked an agreement for a photovoltaic power generation project in 2016. To date, every household in the village has photovoltaic panels installed on the roof and receives nearly 700 yuan ($101.64) in annual income on average.

The growth of the photovoltaic industry has contributed to growing market needs for photovoltaic equipment, which has driven the development of the photovoltaic equipment manufacturing in Tai'an.

The Jingyou photovoltaic project was established, built, and completed in the same year, beginning operations in December 2022. It is one of the major projects of the city's new energy photovoltaic industry to build and strengthen an industrial chain, said Zhang Pengfei, general manager of Tai'an Jingyou Photovoltaic.

This year, Tai'an will continue to bolster the integrated development of the photovoltaic and equipment manufacturing industries to boost the new energy industry, said Liu Yong, deputy director of the municipal bureau of energy, adding that Tai'an plans to increase the output value of the new energy industry to over 50 billion yuan by 2025.