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Zhen et al. Carbon Footprints 2024;3:7 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cf.2023.50 Page 15 of 17

potential; however, its current costs remain high. Moreover, collaborating with businesses and employing
demand-side response methods can also provide flexibility to the power system.

Our study is subject to several limitations. One main limitation is that the findings and suggestions drawn
from our survey conducted in Shandong Province may not be applicable to other regions, as there are
significant variations in photovoltaic resources, economic development, and lifestyle across different regions
in China. Another limitation is that we did not consider the installation year of distributed PV systems in
households, which could introduce uncertainties to our results. The costs and government subsidies
associated with installing distributed PV systems can vary from year to year, influencing households’
decisions regarding the adoption of distributed PV. Moreover, constrained by factors such as personnel
costs and research funding, the sample size in this study was relatively small, thereby limiting our capacity
to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the heterogeneity of distributed photovoltaic adoption across
regions. To further enhance our understanding of the development of distributed PV in China, it will be
necessary to conduct surveys that include more regions and details regarding household distributed PV
systems in future studies.

CONCLUSION
Promoting the development of distributed PV is a critical strategy to reduce household carbon footprint and
an essential measure to achieve carbon neutrality in China. This study aims to ascertain the development
status, promotion model, and problems of distributed PV in rural China through an extensive household
survey in Shandong Province and provide corresponding policy recommendations.

While China has made substantial progress in renewable energy development, including PV, with some
villages demonstrating high installation rates of distributed PV, our household survey in Shandong Province
reveals that more comprehensive policies are required to foster the development of distributed PV in
China’s rural areas. Implementing these policies depends on efficient coordination among higher-level
governments, local village committees, enterprises, and villagers. In addition, high-quality standard policy
documents for distributed PV are a prerequisite for addressing various challenges of distributed PV in rural
areas. Moreover, it is vital to consider the impacts of family and village heterogeneity on households’
installation behavior.

DECLARATIONS
Author contributions
Writing - original draft, visualization, software, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, data curation:
Zhen Z
Writing - review & editing, methodology, investigation, formal analysis: Zhang P
Writing - review & editing, supervision, resources, investigation: Cao J
Supervision, software, methodology: Su F
Writing - review & editing, methodology, investigation: Tong L
Investigation, formal analysis, data curation: Qi Y
Investigation, formal analysis: Li Y
Conceptualization, writing - review & editing: Wei W

Availability of data and materials
The data and code used in this study are available upon a reasonable request.