A review on China's current situation and prospects of poverty alleviation with photovoltaic power generation

China is one of the countries with abundant solar energy resources and also has rapid development in the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Since 2014, the Chinese government has begun to implement the PV power generation for poverty alleviation, which not only was in line with the concept of green development but also accelerated the pace of poverty alleviation in rural regions. This paper first reviews the status quo of energy poverty in rural China and elicits the necessity of developing PV power generation in those regions. Then, from the perspective of precision poverty alleviation, the status quo of PV power generation for poverty alleviation is introduced from the types of poverty alleviation, business modes, and the scale of poverty alleviation projects. This paper also introduces the policy status, which mainly involves national and regional policies, and shows that all departments give importance to PV power generation in rural regions. Furthermore, through the PEST-SWOT strategic analysis model, the internalities (strengths and weaknesses) and externalities (opportunities and threats) of PV power generation are analyzed, including policy, economy, society, and technology. According to the analysis of the strategic model, countermeasures are given in terms of policy recommendations, market mechanism, and technical support to solve some existing problems. Finally, this paper puts forward three key conclusions and prospects that the application of power alleviation with PV power generation is promising.