Recently, Li Zhenguo, founder and chief technology officer of Longji Green Energy, published a forward-looking opinion article entitled "Photovoltaic Technology Helps Food Security" (Photovoltaics for food security) in the top international academic journal Nature Sustainability. This paper systematically expounds the great potential of photovoltaic technology in improving the resilience of global food supply, and puts forward two promising technical paths, showing the important supporting role of photovoltaic in global sustainable development in addition to energy transformation.

Li Zhenguo pointed out in the article that traditional food production is highly dependent on natural photosynthesis and climatic conditions, and is significantly affected by extreme weather events such as drought and flood. In the context of global climate change, agricultural production is facing increasingly severe challenges, and the stability of food supply has become the focus of the international community. As an important force in the global energy transformation, photovoltaic technology not only plays a key role in reducing carbon emissions, but also has the potential to provide new solutions for the resilience of food supply.

The article focuses on two technical paths for photovoltaic technology to support food supply security:

First, the photovoltaic-driven carbon dioxide synthetic starch path.
The path uses photovoltaic power generation for water electrolysis to produce green hydrogen, and couples it with captured carbon dioxide to synthesize green methanol, which is then converted into starch through oxidation, polymerization and other processes. Compared with traditional natural photosynthesis, this path has higher solar energy utilization efficiency and is not restricted by natural conditions such as land and climate. The article estimates that if only 3.7 per cent of the Sahara Desert is used to deploy photovoltaics, 26 trillion kilowatt-hours of green electricity can be generated, which is enough to support the production of 0.52 billion tons of green hydrogen and then synthesize 3 billion tons of food to meet the current food needs of the global population.

Li Zhenguo emphasized that although this path has been verified at the laboratory level, its large-scale economics, energy consumption and environmental impact of carbon dioxide capture, and the full life cycle assessment of industrial food synthesis still need further research.

Second, the photovoltaic-driven "energy-water-food" collaborative system path.
This path gives full play to the multi-functional properties of photovoltaic systems. Through the construction of photovoltaic power plants in desert areas, the shading effect of photovoltaic modules is used to reduce surface radiation and reduce soil moisture evaporation, thereby improving soil microclimate and reducing irrigation demand. Combined with photovoltaic-driven seawater desalination and cross-regional water delivery projects, this path can gradually transform desert land that is not suitable for cultivation into arable farmland, and improve food production and reserve capacity. In high-yield years, surplus grain and straw can be converted into energy; in disaster years, new arable land resources can be used as a key buffer for food supply.

Li Zhenguo pointed out that while achieving land improvement and grain production, the path also needs to carefully evaluate the ecological impact of large-scale desert transformation, the sustainability of high-intensity water resources utilization in arid areas, and the long-term operation reliability of "photovoltaic + agriculture" system in harsh environment. These uncertainties still need to be further clarified through interdisciplinary research.

As the founder and chief technology officer of Longji Green Energy, Li Zhenguo has long been committed to promoting sustainable development through technological innovation. This time, an opinion article was published in "Nature · Sustainable Development", systematically expounding the possibility of building a more resilient global sustainable development system through the deep integration of photovoltaics and ecology, agriculture, water resources and other fields.