Does the solar PV program enhance the social empowerment of China's rural poor?

In 2014, China began to deploy a large-scale solar energy program in poor areas to alleviate rural poverty. This unconventional new energy policy innovation is endowed with strong political will by the Chinese government, which is of great significance to the social empowerment of the poor people. However, is the solar photovoltaic poverty alleviation program (PPAP) effective for the social empowerment of the poor? Compared with other programs, is PPAP the best way to enhance social empowerment? Based on the field survey of 1251 poor families, this paper discusses the significance of PPAP on the social empowerment of the rural poor in the project areas by principal component analysis, data envelopment analysis and grey relation analysis methods. The results show that: (1) six China's poverty alleviation programs including PPAP have played significant roles to contribute the social empowerment of the poor; (2) PPAP is the best way to improve the social empowerment of the poor among several poverty alleviation models; (3) due to the small scale and the unreasonable investment allocation, 60% of the samples does not reach the investment ideal efficiency frontier; (4) there are large regional differences in the social empowerment efficiency in various regions of China.