Towards solar extractivism? A political ecology understanding of the solar energy and agriculture boom in rural China

Contemporary global climate change imperative has stimulated innovative technological systems to combine renewable energy production and other socioeconomic functions, which offer promising solutions to materialize both climate change mitigation and developmental targets. Agrivoltaics—an array of colocation models of solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure and agriculture—are becoming increasingly popular across the world and are widely considered a laudable green development model. Since circa 2013, agrivoltaics have started to diffuse across China, with promises of multiple socioeconomic and ecological benefits. Different from existent studies that mostly took apolitical innovation diffusion frameworks, this article draws on an in-depth case study and multiple secondary sources including information on 421 agrivoltaic projects to approach the proliferation of agrivoltaics in China through a political ecology lens. It finds that the diffusion of agrivoltaics in China has been driven neither by technological superiority nor by market-business viability but by a salient logic of solar extractivism in the name of green development. The solar extractivism is featured by: large-scale (agricultural) land acquisition, prioritization of solar electricity production, domination of renewable industries, deep engagement from local state, discourses of green transition and inclusive development, exclusionary enforcement techniques, and neglect of local socioecological systems. The stark contrast between discourses and realities reveals that the deployment of agrivoltaics embodies solar extractivism and the implicated “green agenda” served rather as a legitimation strategy for resource extraction. The solar extractivism perspective cautions against the fetishism of renewables and relevant green infrastructures in popular green development discourses and calls for critical examination of renewable integrative technical models through social justice lenses.