Just transition: an analysis of agrivoltaics development in Hangzhou China

Agrivoltaics is increasingly promoted as a part of rural development strategy that can expand solar deployment while retaining agricultural functions, yet its legitimacy depends on how land, livelihoods, and risk are governed at the project level. This paper examines a 40 MW agrivoltaics project in Lin’an District (Hangzhou, China) through a qualitative case study based on 28 semi-structured interviews, repeated field visits, and documentary materials collected between April 2024 and May 2025. We assess justice outcomes using three lenses—procedural, distributive, and recognition justice—while treating distributive outcomes as time-dependent. The findings show that procedural fairness was supported by a staged pathway in which county-level feasibility screening preceded township–village consultation, enabling relatively systematic information disclosure and reducing uncertainty. However, villagers’ influence was uneven and largely mediated through village intermediaries, and post-signing problem-solving relied more on informal negotiation than on clearly institutionalized grievance mechanisms. Distributive outcomes displayed a “baseline security with conditional upside” pattern: early compensation and land rents provided predictable gains, while agricultural profits and dividend-like benefits remained contingent on cultivation performance, market conditions, and implementation timing. Recognition was partial, combining community-oriented arrangements with weaker safeguards tailored to land-dependent and labor-constrained households. Overall, the paper argues that durable legitimacy requires transparent risk allocation and enforceable protections for vulnerable groups as project benefits evolve over time.