“Another breakthrough!”At 16:00, 27 February, the total amount of electricity generation of Xingshan’s poverty alleviation photovoltaic power station exceeded 14 million kilowatt-hours, and the total income of grid connected power generation in 7 months was more than13.8 million yuan. “This will add power to the county’s poverty alleviation work.”said Wang Xiaobo, secretary of Xingshan’s Party committee. He told the reporter that as a new mode of poverty alleviation in the county, photovoltaic power station brought sunshine benefits to 69 poor villages, and effectively solved their problem of “empty-shell”collective income.

　　Those poor villages’collective economic income had been under 50,000 yuan, which did not meet the requirement of whole-village poverty alleviation. For this reason, Xingshan’s Party Committee and county government put forward the mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation, and built a centralized agriculture-photovoltaic complementary photovoltaic power station in 2017. Four million yuan taken from the income of the project is injected into the village collective economy and used as a special fund for targeted poverty alleviation every year.

　　“Before the Chinese lunar New Year I received a bonusof 50,000 yuan from the photovoltaic power generation, which has helped the industry out.”said Hu Minghai, Party branch secretary of Baizhu Village, Nanyang Town. According to him, the village had no collective income in the past so that it was very hard to do something for the villagers. Now with the money, the village makes a bid to buy tea machine and prepares for the deep processing of 56 mu of tea. “We’ve gotwhat we wanted and hope for a good price for our tea this year.”Xiao Shiyuan, the tea farmer, says happily when he hears the news.

　　The photovoltaic power generation not only increases the collective income of the villages, but also integrates with the development of local industries and employment, helping the local government to find a new path under the “photovoltaic plus”poverty alleviation model.

　　In the afternoon of 26 February, more than 10 villagers in Yangdaohe Village, Xiakou Town were busy in planting kiwifruit saplings in the power generation poverty alleviation project No. 2 area. “The trees need 3 years to bear fruit, and the industry can steadily increase our income.”said Shu Huatao, chairman of the county’s Urban and Rural Construction and Investment Company. According to him, the local people are exploring a new “agriculture and photovoltaic complementary”model, by planting under the solar photovoltaic panels konjac, mioga ginger, potato, bupleurum and other crops totaling more than 400 acres, thus to promote the industrial development, thus to ensure a higher income for those poor households who have joinedthe cooperatives.

　　The “Photovoltaic poverty alleviation”mechanism innovation has given those poor villages more confidence, and the industry has made the poor households more able to get rich through their own work. Since 2014, the county has been investing heavily on such specialty industries as walnuts, citrus, tea, edible mushrooms, medicinal herbs, vegetables, and animal husbandry to achieve a full coverage of industrial poverty alleviation. And the industrial poverty alleviation fund will reach more than 47 million yuan in 2018.

　　At the same time, the county also tries to establish a charitablecrowd-funding platform to comprehensively promote the development of the poverty alleviation council and the filial piety pension fund. In addition, it is the first in Hubei Province to implement free high school education and the supplementary medical insurance system for serious illness, so that poverty-stricken villagers can lift themselves off poverty actively and people’s living standards can be improved continuously.

　　“2018 is a tough year for us in poverty alleviation, and we must make it the county’s central work and guide the county’s economic and social development.”On February 23, Wang Xiaobo called the tune in the county’s economic work conference by saying that the leaders of the “eight districts”should promptly be in place and the departments at all levels should enjoy firm faith and jointly tackle those major problems, fighting the ten planned major battles in firm determination and guiding further the poverty alleviation work.

　　As planned, 2 heavily poverty-stricken villages and 3 key poverty-stricken villages in Xingshan are needed to be lifted out of poverty this year, involving 11255 people in 5065 households. Despite the tight time and heavy responsibilities, the whole county has been working hard to build up a new poverty-alleviation mode and actively exploring new ways to help the poor so as to lay a solid foundation for the victory in the battle against poverty. (Reporter: Rong Fei)