Villagers 'power' out of poverty

Tongwei, a county located in the Loess Plateau in Northwest China's Gansu province, was listed as a contiguous impoverished area in 2011. 

The county, which experiences scare waterfall, began developing photovoltaic power industry in 2014. The distributed solar power generation project has benefited 18,000 poverty-stricken households and boosted their average income by around 3,000 yuan ($438.6) a year.

A mode combing power generation and farming has also been promoted.