This paper examines inequality in household adoption of rooftop solar photovoltaics in rural China through a qualitative study of three villages. The Chinese government promotes distributed solar to drive low-carbon development. However, community management and China’s institutional system influence unequal access.
China’s rural residential photovoltaic system has been greatly developed in recent years. However, most existing researches, are difficult to reflect the real development situation of the whole system.
According to statistics from the National Energy Administration of China, as of October 2021, the number of residential photovoltaic installations in China has surpassed 6 million households, impacting over tens of millions of individuals [ 13 ].
Currently in China, residential PV installation primarily focuses on retrofitting rooftops and walls of residential buildings with PV systems [ 8 ].
With regard to technology research and development, the latest photoelectric conversion efficiency of China’s mass production of silicon solar cell has reached more than 25%, which is the world’s leading level (Chen et al. 2022). Figure 3. Global top 10 solar PV markets, 2021–2022 (source: author drawing based on solar power Europe 2023).
To promote distributed PV, China’s National Energy Administration launched a “county-level promotion” strategy in 2021. This strategy sets a target for at least 20% of rural households in 676 pilot counties and districts to adopt rooftop solar panels. The concept of “energy justice” originates from John Rawls’ theory of justice.