Fengxian District is giving subsidies to villagers to encourage them to install solar power system in their houses in a bid to promote clean energy, officials said yesterday.

Solar panels have been installed on the rooftops of over 30 village houses in Beiding Village in Jinhui Town. The panels can supply 7,900 kilowatt hours of clean energy annually to each house. Excess electricity generated can be sold to the electricity grid.

“The electricity generated by the panel is enough for our daily use, so we don’t need to pay electricity fees,” said Beiding Village’s Liu Liang’ai who installed the solar panels in February. Some 600 kwh electricity is produced every month, Liu said, adding that he uses an app on his mobile phone to check the efficiency of the solar system on his rooftop.

The central government offers 0.42 yuan (6 US cents) per kwh subsidy for 20 years to the families who install the solar energy panels. The Shanghai government offers another 0.4 yuan per kwh in subsidy for five years.

Shanghai residents can install the solar plates and apply to the city’s development and reform commission for the subsidies, the economic planning body said in a new guideline which was issued late 2016.

The residents need the local electricity company to ascertain how much clean energy is generated monthly. After getting the result, the commission will extend the subsidies to the power company which transfers the money to the residents, according to the commission.

The installation costs about 30,000 yuan for a 3kw solar plate system, and with the subsidies the users can recover the cost within five years, said Li Qiang, general manager at Xia Lin New Energy Technology Company, who takes charge of the installation in the district. The panels can be used for 25 years.

“It is easier to promote the solar power system in villages than in downtown residential communities,” an official with the district government said. Most village families live in stand-alone houses and can decide what to install on the rooftops, he added.

The solar power system has also been promoted in some high-end villa communities in the district.

China has been urging wider use of new clean energies among companies and residents to cut reliance on fuel power plants.