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Page 8 of 17 Zhen et al. Carbon Footprints 2024;3:7 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cf.2023.50

The village-led mode accounts for only 4.9%. In this mode, the village committee coordinated and
integrated the needs, and the enterprise provided installation and maintenance services. With the
cooperation of village committees and enterprises, the cost and risk of residents’ participation were
significantly reduced. This model accounts for only a tiny part of the installed distributed PV. The village
committees must take the initiative to understand the photovoltaic-related policies and promote
implementation.

Installation rate
Within the surveyed households, 42.7% have installed and utilized the distributed photovoltaic system.
80.3% of these households handled the installation through direct contact with enterprises. Among the
households that have installed distributed PV, 49.2% of the households leased their rooftops to enterprises
and received a fixed annual subsidy. In comparison, 50.8% of the households chose the mode of “self-use
first and the rest of the generation to the grid” or “all generation to the grid” .

Regarding installation costs, 41.0% of the users stated that the installation cost of photovoltaic equipment is
fully covered, 11.5% of them spent 30,000-50,000 yuan, and 27.9% bear a cost of more than 80,000 yuan.
Among the village councils interviewed, 26.9% received energy transition targets from superior authorities,
and 38.5% received the target of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. 42.3% of villages benefited from clear
photovoltaic policy support, with 45.5% under the “whole county photovoltaic” scheme. Meanwhile, 38.5%
of the village councils confirmed receiving financial subsidies for photovoltaic installations.

Satisfaction
Previous studies show that the high satisfaction of rural households with distributed PV is often based on
high subsidies and high power reliability , and installation costs and power generation revenues are the
[37]
main factors affecting residents’ willingness to install distributed PV and satisfaction [15,16] . Among the
households that have installed distributed PV, 18.0% are unsatisfied, and only 21.3% are satisfied
[Figure 5A]. The villagers’ primary concerns regarding installing photovoltaic equipment include
diminishing subsidies, elevated installation costs, and a limited understanding of the related policies.
Additionally, some enterprises fail to provide proper maintenance and supervision after the installation.
According to the survey results, 25.2% of villagers reported a lack of awareness regarding policies related to
photovoltaic installation. Additionally, 51.7% mentioned that local government departments or enterprises
did not conduct follow-up visits or provide regular maintenance for photovoltaic equipment in the previous
year [Figure 5B]. It's evident that there is room for improvement in the current practices of installing and
maintaining distributed PV systems.

Challenges of distributed PV development
Insufficient policy promotion
Results show that the transmission rate of photovoltaic policy-related documents to the village-level
administrative units is less than 50%. Furthermore, 53.8% of the village committees have never publicly
publicized photovoltaic-related policies and 34.6% of the village committees do not participate in the
process of villagers purchasing and using photovoltaic equipment [Figure 5C]. This also leads to the lack of
a comprehensive understanding of distributed PV systems for households by villagers. In our survey, 64.4%
of the villagers said that they did not understand the relevant policies on the installation of such systems,
only 11.2% of the villagers had familiarity with the relevant policies [Figure 5D], and 31.2% of the villagers
learned the relevant information through the dissemination by the village committee or enterprises. In
addition, during the installation process, 88.52% of the villagers said that the village committee did not
participate at all or rarely participated in the specific installation process. 30.4% of the villagers who did not