Shendong Coal’s Buertai Project Achieves Combined Economic and Ecological Benefits

June 4 saw a busy scene at the site of an eco-photovoltaic base of Buertai Mine of Shendong Coal, a subsidiary of China Energy. The rotary tiller turned up the soil in an orderly manner under the photovoltaic panels, while planting workers were applying fertilizer, plowing, and sowing alfalfa in shifts.

Planting workers loosen the soil under solar panels.

The Buertai eco-photovoltaic base, jointly built by Shendong Coal and the local government, is a demonstration project that integrates ecological management and photovoltaic power generation. Following the “coal-mining subsidence area + photovoltaic power generation + modern agriculture + others” management model, the base is currently planting trees between woods and solar panel clusters in the planned area to prevent wind and fix sand. It plans to plant alfalfa, fodder mulberry, sea buckthorn, and economic fruit trees under and between the photovoltaic panels according to the “forest-solar complementary” and “agriculture-solar complementary” modes, so as to “transform lucid waters and lush mountains into invaluable assets,” promote ecological industrialization and industrial ecology, and achieve greater ecological, economic, and social benefits.

Organic fertilizers are prepared for the ecological project.

So far, a total of 131,303 trees, 488,652 economic and ecological shrubs, and 100 hectares of forage grass have been planted around the Buertai eco-photovoltaic base.