China Datang Corporation Promotes Green Energy to Boost Poverty Alleviation

China Datang Corporation Ltd. has helped lift 180 Lisu ethnic group villages in 3 prefectures and cities of Southwest China's Yunnan province out of poverty by making full use of local resources and promoting green energy.

The company and the Yunnan government signed an agreement on precise poverty alleviation of the area inhabiting area of Lisu ethnic group in 2016.

Soon after the agreement was signed, the company's subsidiary in Yunnan launched a special team to promote poverty-alleviation work which mainly included poverty-alleviation fund investment, green energy projects promotion and local industrial development.

The company also sent employees to the villages to inspect and live with local residents to learn their needs and figure out special poverty-alleviation plans based on local factors.

In the past few years, the company invested 1 billion yuan ($13.95 million) in poverty alleviation in 6 counties of the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture.

By March 2020, about 192,200 people of 51,559 poverty-stricken households overcame poverty with the company's support.

Take Wuding county, one of the 27 extremely-poor counties in Yunnan, for example. It had 16,873 listed poverty-stricken residents, about 16.8 percent of the county's population.

Thanks to China Datang Corporation Ltd., all poverty-stricken villages in the county have now been moved out of poverty and it is expected that all the county's people will escape poverty by the end of this year, Li Yulin, Party Secretary of the county, said.

He added that the company not only lifted the county out of poverty by financial measures but also promoted local industries including pig and cattle breeding to solve the problem of poverty at its roots. Such projects will sustain the county's revitalization.

Promoting green energy-based projects is a new poverty-alleviation mode initiated by the company.

So far, the company has power generation projects with a total installed capacity of about 6.80 million kW in 11 prefectures and cities in the province. More than 90 percent of them are powered by green energy.

The company also took advantages of rich natural resources in the province. For example, it has used the rich solar energy in the province to promote photovoltaic (PV) power projects.

On a 2,300-meter high slope in Jijiezi village of Wuding, the company built a PV power station which can bring villagers 80,000 yuan of income annually. In Wuding alone a total of 21 PV power stations have been constructed.

In addition to solar power, water is also playing its role.

The company invested nearly 30 billion yuan in construction of the Guanyinyan hydropower station, which plays a big role in helping villagers escape poverty and achieve prosperity.

He Zaishun, deputy head of Huaping county where the station is located, explained that local people benefit a lot from the project.

Thanks to the hydropower station, the county has become the third-largest mango farming county in China and has its own mango brand.

At present, the county has mango fields covering 378,000 mu (25,200 hectares) that are valued at more than 2.26 billion yuan. About 41 percent of the farmers in the county plant mangos.

Within 3 kilometers of the hydropower station is the Huaping Industrial Park where a green silicon industrial cluster has been formed. Nearly 3 billion kWh of power is expected to be needed to operate the park when all enterprises go into service and at that time hundreds of poverty-stricken residents in affected areas will be recruited to work there.

The county and the power station are now working together to find large power consumers to make full use of the green energy project.

Moving Southeast into Wenshan Zhuang and Miao autonomous prefecture in Yunnan, the wind farm in the Yangxiong Mountain in Qiubei county is also showing its capacity in turning 100,000 mu of grasslands into a tourism resource.

According to the local tourism and culture bureau, the area has become an alpine grassland scenic spot where people can go camping and sightseeing. It is also an entertainment resort and a photography site.

The spot brings local people more than 3 million yuan of income annually.

Education is also a focus of China Datang Corporation Ltd. in its precise poverty-alleviation work. The company offers financial support to students from poverty-stricken households and recruits them as employee after graduation.

The company will continue to seek innovative ways to contribute to China's poverty-alleviation campaign.

A hydropower station in a poverty-alleviation county of Yunnan built by China Datang Corporation Ltd. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)