China explores new ways to combine solar power with agriculture

(ECNS) -- Solar panels are appearing above more and more farms across China as the country looks for new ways to pair renewable energy with agricultural production. 

A rooftop solar project at a large dairy farm in Anhui Province began operating in July, covering 560,000 square meters of cattle barn roofs without taking up any additional land.

The project can generate up to 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a day and is expected to produce about 80 million kilowatt-hours a year, according to Xiao Jun, who heads the project. The farm houses about 40,000 cattle at a single site, he said, making it the largest in Asia to carry rooftop solar. The panels also help keep the barns cooler.

The project is part of a broader push in Anhui to combine solar power with farming. A hybrid fishery and solar project with a total investment of 514 million yuan (about $71 million) has begun construction in Hefei, according to the local government.

In Guangde, panels have been installed across nearly 600,000 square meters of tea plantations, generating about 136 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity a year, a representative of the project said.

The trend is spreading nationwide as local governments and businesses look for more efficient ways to use land and other resources. A report released in February projected that China's total solar power generation capacity would grow by about 25% in 2026.

Policy support is growing alongside it. The Renewable Energy Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period calls for wider use of distributed renewable energy in industrial, commercial, transport, building, and agricultural settings.

The sector continued to expand in the first half of 2026. The National Energy Administration said renewable energy accounted for 60.7% of China's total installed power capacity, with wind and solar making up nearly half.

The growth in solar applications is reshaping the photovoltaic industry itself. Industry experts say competition is shifting away from scale and price toward efficiency, technological innovation, and integrated applications.

For agriculture, researchers said "solar-plus" projects could extend the reach of photovoltaic power while keeping land in productive use. 

(By Helen Mo & intern Liu Shuangjing)