Study on sustainable development of rural household energy in northern China

The status of rural household energy consumption plays an important role in farmers’ daily life, especially in developing countries or regions. Here, we review the evolution of the rural household energy consumption structure in northern China from 1996 to 2005. Studies indicate that the proportion of straw, firewood, and coal consumption in total energy consumption have remained at 88.8–91.0%, whereas the proportion of high-quality commercial energy and modern renewable energy is still very low. The main challenges for the sustainable development of rural household energy supply are an unreasonable energy consumption structure, low-energy efficiency, serious environmental degradation, a large gap in energy supply among regions, and difficulty in developing renewable energy. We suggest some countermeasures to overcome the obstacles involved in the sustainable development of rural household energy in northern China, from energy sources to sociopolitical policies.     

中国农村生活用能及其碳排放分析(2001-2010)

分析了2001~2008年中国农村生活用能的变化以及2001~2010年中国农村生活用能对气候变化的影响。研究发现,农村生活用能呈现了从非商品能源向商品能源转变的趋势,其中,传统生物质能源的消费比例从81.5%下降至70.9%,而商品能源则从17.1%上升至25.1%。此外,除传统生物质能源外的其它可再生能源的消费增长迅速,年均增长率为19.8%。与此相应,农村生活用能消费所导致的碳排放呈现出显著的增加趋势,由152.2百万t上升至366.89百万t,且农村人均CO2排放的增长速度是同期城镇人口的1.87倍。分析认为,影响商品能源消费的主要因素是农村居民收入的增加,强有力的政策支持则促进了农村除传统生物质能源外其他可再生能源的发展。     

Overview of rural building energy efficiency in China

Over the past three decades, people׳s living standard in China has been greatly improved, accompanied by the rapid increasing building energy consumption. Rural building energy consumption has become one of the most important parts of the total energy consumption in China, which deserves to be paid much attention. It is of vital importance to promote building energy efficiency for the New Socialist Countryside and energy conservation and emission reduction. This paper provides an overview of building energy consumption in the countryside, which figures out the situation and challenges in energy-saving work. The government has worked for years on rural building code system aimed at narrowing the energy gap between urban areas, but it is in the beginning phase. This paper has analyzed the only special issues about rural building energy efficiency and the mandatory standards for urban buildings, which can facilitate the development of rural building energy efficiency. Based on the above analysis, some recommendations regarding the improvement of rural building energy efficiency are given.     

Towards green rural energy in Yunnan, China

Yunnan is one of the less developed provinces in China, but has abundant energy resources, and is an ideal destination for tourists around the world due to its perfect climate and unique sightseeing resorts. However, energy consumption in rural households relies mainly on straw (12.15%), firewood (41%), and coal (38.5%). This pattern of energy consumption has been imposing pressure on the environment, water resources and soil in recent years with the rapid growth of Yunnan’s economy. This paper reports the achievements in Yunnan’s rural energy development in the past two decades. Issues of the greatest concern and interest, which are unfavorable for further development of rural energy, have been identified, and a new proposal of developing green rural energy in Yunnan is suggested based on its economy and resource conditions. The proposal addresses the development of biogas, small hydropower and solar energy, which are abundant in Yunnan. It is estimated that the new program will annually bring direct benefits of about 5 billion yuan to farmers by 2010, and the indirect benefits, such as those from tourism due to the improvement of the environment resulting from the use of green rural energy, will be enormous. It is believed that the program will speed up rural economic growth through the integrated utilization of rural energy.     

Quantification of provincial-level carbon emissions from energy consumption in China

Greenhouse gas emission inventories are useful tools for monitoring air quality and assisting local policy development. This article estimates CO₂ emission inventories from energy consumption and carbon intensities of provinces and municipalities in Mainland China in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005–2008 using the IPCC mass balance approach. Results show that China's coal-based energy structure and unique economic development have heavily impacted CO₂ emissions. Fortunately, although coal consumption has increased to over 70% of all fuel use, the share of CO₂ emissions from coal has gradually decreased due to energy consumption restructuring. The switch from coal-dominance to cleaner, renewable energies (wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear power, geothermal, biomass energy) will undoubtedly reduce CO₂ emissions in China. Results also indicate that carbon intensity has improved steadily, as China's economic development introduces new technologies intended to minimize environmental pollution and destruction. Our results suggest that China's CO₂ emissions may not be as high as expected in future, and will gradually lessen.     

Building energy efficiency in rural China

Rural buildings in China now account for more than half of China's total building energy use. Forty percent of the floorspace in China is in rural villages and towns. Most of these buildings are very energy inefficient, and may struggle to provide for basic needs. They are cold in the winter, and often experience indoor air pollution from fuel use. The Chinese government plans to adopt a voluntary building energy code, or design standard, for rural homes. The goal is to build on China's success with codes in urban areas to improve efficiency and comfort in rural homes. The Chinese government recognizes rural buildings represent a major opportunity for improving national building energy efficiency. The challenges of rural China are also greater than those of urban areas in many ways because of the limited local capacity and low income levels. The Chinese government wants to expand on new programs to subsidize energy efficiency improvements in rural homes to build capacity for larger-scale improvement. This article summarizes the trends and status of rural building energy use in China. It then provides an overview of the new rural building design standard, and describes options and issues to move forward with implementation.     

Meeting energy requirement of wastewater treatment in rural sector

In this paper, wastewater treatment requirements for a typical village in the agricultural belt of India has been discussed. Investigations have been made on the available water resources and wastewater generation from the use of water in domestic applications and meeting the requirements for the household livestock. Innovative techniques are described to treat the wastewater generated in the village with the available discarded materials. The energy requirement of the wastewater treatment system could be met from a mix of conventional and the renewable energy resources. There is a gap in the traditional energy supply and demand of the village, which can be bridged with the use of renewable energy.     

Reduction of fossil fuel emissions in the USA: A holistic approach towards policy formulation

In the United States, the response of the federal government to the global initiative of reduction of emissions of CO₂ has been limited. With the Kyoto Protocol having entered into force in February 2005, there will be renewed international pressure on the United States for action. Concurrently, the US economy, growing modestly, is characterized by large current account and budget deficits. This situation calls for garnering additional revenue through repealing of the recent tax cuts. An option available is to impose a modest carbon tax. The rationale of such a tax is that it would address the twin objectives of additional revenue and reduction of emissions.     

Analysis and forecast of the Tianjin industrial carbon dioxide emissions resulted from energy consumption

This paper analyses the carbon dioxide emissions caused by industrial energy consumption of Tianjin from 2005 to 2012. The carbon emissions decomposition illustrated that the scale of production factor played a major role in the growth of Tianjin industrial carbon emissions and the average contribution of carbon emissions is up to 220.8975% in the statistical period; the intensity of energy factor played an important role in slowing down the growth of industrial carbon dioxide emissions. The average contribution of carbon emissions was ?136.1994% in the statistical period. The prediction model based on carbon emissions data from industrial energy consumption from 2003 to 2012 reached a high accuracy, with an average error of 1.78% for stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model, 2.41% for the Logistic regression model and an average error of 1.54% for the grey model. This research can contribute to predict the carbon emission and through it some suggestions can be made.     

A multivariate causality test of carbon dioxide emissions,energy consumption and economic growth in China

This paper uses multivariate co-integration Granger causality tests to investigate the correlations between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in China. Some researchers have argued that the adoption of a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption as a long term policy goal will result in a closed-form relationship, to the detriment of the economy. Therefore, a perspective that can make allowances for the fact that the exclusive pursuit of economic growth will increase energy consumption and CO₂ emissions is required; to the extent that such growth will have adverse effects with regard to global climate change.     

Analysis of influencing factors of energy consumption in rural Henan based on symbolic regression method and Tapio model

ABSTRACT

As China’s traditional agricultural province, the rural areas of Henan have experienced phenomenal economic growth while also consuming too much energy. However, few studies have focused on the analysis of rural energy economic development in Henan. For the first time, this paper used the combination of symbolic regression and tapio decoupling analysis, and introduce six factors that best reflect the characteristics of rural energy consumption (E) in Henan Province, such as effective irrigated area (EIA), per capita living space (PLS), total power of agricultural machinery (PAM), Population (POP), per capita income (PI) and total value of agricultural (TVA). This paper collected data from 2000 to 2015 to fit the formula for rural energy consumption in Henan Province based on the Eureqa-formulize software. The conclusion shows that: (1) The most critical factors are affecting the energy consumption in rural is effective irrigated area, total power of agricultural machinery, rural per capita income, per capita living space and total value of agricultural, but the population is not the main factor. (2) The E-EIA decoupling and the E-PLS decoupling have two decoupling status: weak decoupling and expansive negative decoupling. The E-PAM decoupling has three decoupling status: weak decoupling, expansive coupling, and expansive negative decoupling. The E-PI decoupling and the E-TVA decoupling have one decoupling status: weak decoupling. (3) According to the incidence of each influencing factors, from strong to weak is EIA> PLS> PAM> TVA> PI. The five influencing factors have all shown a positive decoupling effect on energy consumptions.     

CO2 emissions,energy consumption and economic growth in China: A panel data analysis

This paper examines the causal relationships between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and real economic output using panel cointegration and panel vector error correction modeling techniques based on the panel data for 28 provinces in China over the period 1995–2007. Our empirical results show that CO₂ emissions, energy consumption and economic growth have appeared to be cointegrated. Moreover, there exists bidirectional causality between CO₂ emissions and energy consumption, and also between energy consumption and economic growth. It has also been found that energy consumption and economic growth are the long-run causes for CO₂ emissions and CO₂ emissions and economic growth are the long-run causes for energy consumption. The results indicate that China's CO₂ emissions will not decrease in a long period of time and reducing CO₂ emissions may handicap China's economic growth to some degree. Some policy implications of the empirical results have finally been proposed.     

Carbon emission,energy consumption and intermediate goods trade: A regional study of East Asia

Using country level panel data from East Asia over the period 1998–2011, this paper examines the implications of international production fragmentation-induced intermediate goods trade on the link between energy consumption and carbon pollution. The paper focuses on the interaction effect between energy consumption and trade in intermediate goods on carbon emission. The empirical results presented suggest that international trade in intermediate goods decreases the positive impact on carbon emission of energy consumption. When compared with the trade in final goods, intermediate goods trade contributes to a greater decrease in carbon pollution resulting from energy consumption. These results confirm that the link between energy consumption and carbon pollution in East Asia is significantly affected by international production fragmentation-induced trade in intermediate goods. The results presented in this paper have some important policy implications.     

Potential application of renewable energy for rural electrification in Malaysia

Energy poverty and lack of electricity in rural areas exacerbate the poverty of the developing countries. In Malaysia, 3.8% of the population lives below the poverty line and most of them are settled in rural areas. The electricity coverage in poor states is about 79% in comparison with 99.62% in Peninsular Malaysia. The renewable energy sources can be considered the best alternative to reduce the energy poverty of the rural areas where the grid extension through a difficult terrain and thick jungle is not possible or economic. In this study, the potential for applying renewable sources – solar, wind and hydropower – for rural electrification is investigated, especially in the poorest States. A comparative study on rural electrification policies, in order to have community approval, appropriate siting and financial benefits for the rural community, while considering the three categories of social, institutional and economic issues, is also examined. Finally, the Malaysian policies of rural electrification by applying renewable sources are explained. It is found that in Malaysia, with a maximum solar radiation of about 6.027 kWh/m² per day in Sabah and 5.303 kWh/m² per day in Sarawak, the potential for applying solar energy for electrification is too high. However, the potential for micro-hydropower in Sabah and Sarawak is found to be 3182 kW and 6317 kW through 18 and 22 sites, respectively.     

Carbon emissions,energy consumption and economic growth: An aggregate and disaggregate analysis of the Indian economy

This study investigates the long and short run relationships among carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in India at the aggregated and disaggregated levels during 1971–2014. The autoregressive distributed lag model is employed for the cointegration analyses and the vector error correction model is applied to determine the direction of causality between variables. Results show that a long run cointegration relationship exists and that the environmental Kuznets curve is validated at the aggregated and disaggregated levels. Furthermore, energy (total energy, gas, oil, electricity and coal) consumption has a positive relationship with carbon emissions and a feedback effect exists between economic growth and carbon emissions. Thus, energy-efficient technologies should be used in domestic production to mitigate carbon emissions at the aggregated and disaggregated levels. The present study provides policy makers with new directions in drafting comprehensive policies with lasting impacts on the economy, energy consumption and environment towards sustainable development.     

A review of renewable energy activities in Yemen

Republic of Yemen is a developing country depending on oil for the energy needs. A look at the availability of renewable energy resources shows that the country is endowed with considerable solar, wind, bio-gas energy resources. This paper presents a review of activities in the field of renewable energy applications in Yemen and future trends, some suggestions and recommendations for using this renewable energy resources are also drawn.     

Linkages among energy, agriculture and environment in rural India

The interconnections between energy, agriculture and environment in rural India are analyzed in this paper using a systems perspective. Rural areas of developing countries use biomass for fuel, fodder, fertilizer and other purposes, and it is necessary to understand the fuel-fodder–fertilizer relationships for optimal biomass allocation. The allocation is explored using a linear programming model. First, the model is validated by simulating it using data for the year 1990–1991. The model is then applied for the year 2000, and several scenarios are generated to obtain answers to various policy questions. The results show that it is necessary to increase fertilizer consumption, to increase efficiencies of cooking stoves, to improve livestock feed, and/or to decrease population growth for maximizing the revenue generated in the rural system of India. It shows that when the prices of fertilizers increase, a large increase in kerosene requirements can be expected. It also points to the necessity to increase kerosene consumption to reduce emissions (due to non-commercial fuels) and soil fertility loss. For example, the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the scenarios range from 137.50 to 62.50 million tons (in carbon equivalent terms) for the high and low cases, respectively. Correspondingly, kerosene consumption ranges from 0.18 to 15.49 kilotons (kT).     

Techno-economic analysis of a hybrid energy system for CCHP and hydrogen production based on solar energy

A typical problem in Northeast China is that a large amount of surplus electricity has arisen owing to the serious photovoltaic power curtailment phenomenon. To effectively utilize the excess photovoltaic power, a hybrid energy system is proposed that uses surplus electricity to produce hydrogen in this paper. It combines solar energy, hydrogen production system, and Combined Cooling Heating and Power (CCHP) system to realize cooling, heating, power, and hydrogen generation. The system supplies energy for three public buildings in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, and the system configuration with the lowest unit energy cost (0.0615$/kWh) was obtained via optimization. Two comparison strategies were used to evaluate the hybrid energy system in terms of unit energy cost, annual total cost, fossil energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Subsequently, the annual total energy supply, typical daily loads, and cost of the optimized system were analyzed. In conclusion, the system is feasible for small area public buildings, and provides a solution to solve the phenomenon of photovoltaic power curtailment.     

Sectoral trends in global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions

Integrated assessment models have been used to project both baseline and mitigation greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Results of these scenarios are typically presented for a number of world regions and end-use sectors, such as industry, transport, and buildings. Analysts interested in particular technologies and policies, however, require more detailed information to understand specific mitigation options in relation to business-as-usual trends. This paper presents sectoral trend for two of the scenarios produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Global and regional historical trends in energy use and carbon dioxide emissions over the past 30 years are examined and contrasted with projections over the next 30 years. Macro-activity indicators are analyzed as well as trends in sectoral energy and carbon demand. This paper also describes a methodology to calculate primary energy and carbon dioxide emissions at the sector level, accounting for the full energy and emissions due to sectoral activities.     

Mathematical model for energy planning of rural India

This paper describes an integrated energy system planning approach for Wardha District in Maharashtra State, India, for the year AD 2000 and gives an optimal mix of new/conventional energy technologies using a computer-based mixed integer linear programming model. The district level planning is accomplished by successively applying in two stages a new statistical extrapolation technique for moving first from the village level energy scenarios based on surveys to the corresponding energy scenarios at the block level and then for moving next from the block level scenarios to the desired district level planning profile. The model is suitably scaled for obtaining the optimal results at the district level owing to limitations on the available memory on the PC-AT system in use. Energy options for seasonal crops have been considered explicitly in the model. Post-optimal analysis based on a linear programming model to study the effect of the variations in parameters on the optimal solution has been performed.