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.     

Household energy consumption in the UK: A highly geographically and socio-economically disaggregated model

Devising policies for a low carbon society requires a careful understanding of energy consumption in different types of households. In this paper, we explore patterns of UK household energy use and associated carbon emissions at national level and also at high levels of socio-economic and geographical disaggregation. In particular, we examine specific neighbourhoods with contrasting levels of deprivation, and typical ‘types’ (segments) of UK households based on socio-economic characteristics. Results support the hypothesis that different segments have widely differing patterns of consumption. We show that household energy use and associated carbon emissions are both strongly, but not solely, related to income levels. Other factors, such as the type of dwelling, tenure, household composition and rural/urban location are also extremely important. The methodology described in this paper can be used in various ways to inform policy-making. For example, results can help in targeting energy efficiency measures; trends from time series results will form a useful basis for scenario building; and the methodology may be used to model expected outcomes of possible policy options, such as personal carbon trading or a progressive tax regime on household energy consumption.     

我国农村沼气建设现状及发展对策

论述了目前我国农村沼气的发展现状和特点，指出农村沼气建设已进入了规模化发展的阶段，并取得了显著的经济、社会和生态等综合效益，同时针对农村沼气项目推广中出现的认识、技术、资金、管理等方面的问题，提出了相应的对策和建议。     

Waste to biogas through anaerobic digestion: Hydrogen production potential in the developing world - A case of Bangladesh

Waste management is one of the greatest global challenges, for which one reason is the composition of waste, which varies not only from one region to another but also over time. Recent studies considered waste treatment options for the developed world, where management schemes include waste to hydrogen generation. Although there is great potential for producing hydrogen from waste (e.g. biogas) in the developing world, this has received less attention. This study explores hydrogen production potential from waste in the developing world, particularly focusing on Bangladesh. Results show that anaerobic digestion is the most suitable waste management technology for the developing world predominantly due to waste's composition. The waste composition is dominated by organic food wastes (varying between 50% and 87%), of which the moisture content is more than 50%, thus being unsuitable for self-combustion. National energy policy making should consider this potential source of energy/hydrogen towards a sustainable future.     

A review of the biogas industry in China

This article presents an overview of the development and future perspectives of the Chinese biogas industry. The development of the industry has the potential to improve the rural environment and produce significant amounts of sustainable energy for China. Barriers to the development are the relatively weak environmental policies, imperfect financial policies and lack of long-term follow-up services. The rapid economic development of China has also seen a development in the scales of biogas plants constructed. Although the technology has been improved, this review has identified problems in the construction and operation of Chinese biogas plants, particularly in the efficiency of household systems. All levels of China's government acknowledge this and recent biogas projects have more focus on quality and less on the quantity. The intention is to gradually introduce stricter environmental policies, to provide better service systems, improve the financial policies that support the construction and follow-up service of biogas projects, promote the use of standardized engineering equipment and materials and standards for plant construction and production. This will promote the development of biogas projects at various scales further, and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases.     

Dairy farming and biogas use in Rungwe district, South-west Tanzania: A study of opportunities and constraints

This study examined the opportunities and constraints of biogas use in Rungwe district, South-west Tanzania. Two hundred households with and without biogas facilities were selected randomly from four villages. Structured, semi-structured and open-ended discussion was used to gather information. Findings show a number of opportunities for biogas technology adoption including large numbers of indoor-fed cattle and inadequate firewood in the district, which has increased its cost of such commodity. Households generally spend an average of TShs. 20,656.50 per month or TShs. 247,876.8 per annum for energy. The demand for biogas (90%) among respondents is high and the energy policy as well as donor community favour the promotion of energy efficient technologies such as biogas. Constraints encountered in establishing biogas plants were found to include unaffordability (75%) and water scarcity. Also there is inadequate expertise where some of the biogas plants have been poorly constructed leading to ineffective performance. There is also a small proportion of the respondents who admitted that they had heard nothing about biogas technology. It is being suggested that credit should be available as well as developing affordable biodigestors. Communal biogas should be encouraged to reduce the cost per unit and the government should undertake the improvement of water services.     

Energy supply for sustainable rural livelihoods. A multi-criteria decision-support system

Energy supply to the rural poor in developing countries is a complex activity that transcends the simple selection of a best technology. This paper explains the outcomes achieved by using a new multi-criteria decision-support system to assist in calculating the most appropriate set of energy options for providing sufficient power to fulfil local demands that improve livelihoods. The elicitation of the priorities of future users, which are subsequently integrated into the energy selection process, is seen as a mechanism for the promotion of energy policies that ensure that technological developments reduce poverty. The sustainable rural energy decision support system (SURE DSS), a methodological package and software designed by the research team RESURL builds upon technical and non-technical features of energy development in remote poor areas, drawing on a sustainable livelihoods approach as part of its rationale. SURE enables simulations and calculation of the disparities that may arise between current and potential livelihoods after specific energy solutions have been installed, as well as measuring potential trade-offs among alternative livelihoods. The paper reports the outcome of an application of SURE to the case of a remote Colombian rural community whose total energy demands are only partly met through a diesel generator.     

Energy for sustainable development: A case of developing countries

Today, there are 1.4 billion people around the world that lack access to electricity, some 85% of them in rural areas. Without additional dedicated policies, by 2030 the number of people drops, but only to 1.2 billion. Some 15% of the world's population still lack access, the majority of them living in Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of people relying on the traditional use of biomass is projected to rise from 2.7 billion today to 2.8 billion in 2030. Addressing these inequities depends upon international recognition that the projected situation is intolerable, a commitment to effect the necessary change, and setting targets and indicators to monitor progress. A new financial, institutional and technological framework is required, as is capacity building in order to dramatically scale up access to modern energy services at the local and regional levels. In this paper, we discussed the energy situation of the developing countries for sustainable development.     

Experimental investigation on the production of biogas from waste food

The production of biogas has been a substantial target to be utilized globally, especially in the agricultural sector. Most organic waste that is being produced from other forms of renewable energy systems is mainly used to reduce greenhouse emission (GHG), which as well reduces the daily consumption of fossil fuels. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) has been studied widely in recent years where its implementation in the industry has seen a mitigating impact on greenhouse gases. Unrestricted discharge of the big amount of waste food (WF) has become the main effect of severe environmental pollution worldwide. Among the various treatment methods, anaerobic digestion (AD) of waste food allows its valorization and the biogas produced can be used as biofuel enhancing the gas supply. In this study, a mechanical pre-treatment with Hollander beater has been applied to break down the particle size of waste food in the way to increase feedstock specific surface areas in other to enhance biogas production. Following, the pre-treatment of waste food during 30 min beating time, the biogas yield achieved a value of about 610.33 ml/gTS. Accordingly, a response surface methodology (RSM) can be used to critically evaluate the effects of process parameter (beating time and temperature) to the output response (biogas production). Pre-treated waste food by Hollander beater at beating time of 30 min enhances biogas production by 80%. An optimum biogas yield was achieved with pre-treatment of waste food at a beating time of 30 min.     

中国农村户用沼气生产及其影响因素分析

对我国农村沼气生产情况进行了分析,认为我国农村沼气生产在取得较快发展的同时,存在较大的地区差异.文中采用面板数据对农村沼气生产影响因素进行分析,指出我国农村沼气生产明显受到该地区大牲畜存栏数量、平均温度、农户收入水平以及制度和技术进步因素的影响,而农户人均受教育程度和沼气的替代能源价格等因素对沼气生产的影响并不明显.     

Towards a bright future? Household use of electric light: A microlevel study

This paper addresses the problem of energy saving in the residential sector and its relation to behavior. However, we know little about the mechanisms explaining consumption and use. The aim is to explore the behavioral elements behind patterns of use, so that consumption can be explained and saving possibilities identified. The study is based on detailed, metered data from an ongoing monitoring study. A larger sample from that study made testing of two hypotheses possible. Yet, many factors remain hidden and must be traced among the habits of households. The major part of the article is devoted to an exploration into what other variables are at work. This was done by studying the electricity consumption of seven households closely. Here, different sources of information from each household were combined: detailed, metered data for each lamp or fixture; data from interviews regarding habits; and observations of natural light and lighting equipment at visits. This information from combined sources was used to detect meanings of use and relationships with consumption. What has been found here must be translated to measurable variables and tested on representative samples of populations. This study offers information on these variables identified and how to interpret them.     

Solid oxide fuel cell technology for sustainable development in China: An over-view

Fuel cell technology motivates a variety of benefits, which are barely offered by other energy technologies. The fuel cell can be obtained through natural resources—biomass, coal and water, which are abundant in China. More importantly, most of these are sustainable and realize ecological circulation. Being blessed with a source of renewable energy, fuel cell technology is favorably promoted in China. Simultaneously, fuel cell technology offers China great opportunities to meet the energy consumption demand for its sustainable development. In this proposed method, useful results of leading research in solid oxide fuel cell relevant research in China are reviewed and the hybrid system based fuel cell technology is particularly detailed. Additionally, the effects of some important renewable energy parameters, future challenges and constructive recommendations for China's energy technology are suggested.     

Agricultural waste resources and biogas energy potential in rural areas of Lao PDR

Lao PDR lacks of conventional energy resources, such as oil and natural gas, and 100% of fossil fuels are imported from abroad. Fossil fuel consumption in Lao PDR in 2010 was about 561 million liters and rapidly increased to 716 million liters by 2015. However, Lao PDR has a high potential for renewable energy, especially from hydropower, agricultural wastes, and livestock wastes, in which agricultural and livestock annually produced a large amount of agricultural residues as a favorable renewable energy sources. In 2016, productivity crops were estimated for 24,608,840 ton and these products amount can be generated annual agricultural residues for 12,525,000 ton, which can be estimated to total of energy potential was 197,840 GJ or 55,001 GWh. The majority of livestock in country are buffaloes, cattle, swine, and poultry; large amount of livestock manure produced from each region and can be feedstock as substrate for biogas digester, which these amounts were estimated about 1,583,740 kg TS/day, and equivalent to 439,917 m3/day of biogas production or 658,376 kWh/day of energy generation. Therefore, objective of this paper is unique to promote and research development the agroforestry residues and livestock wastes as renewable energy resources, and its energy potential for biofuel production, including, biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas in each region of Laos.     

Liberalising European electricity markets: opportunities and risks for a sustainable power sector

The process of liberalising European electricity markets, encompassing a wide range of restructuring activities, has mainly been spurred by the attempt to increase the economic efficiency of the whole sector. This process might be used to trigger a development towards a sustainable power sector by increasing the use of renewable energy sources and enhancing energy efficiency on the supply and demand side. However, by taking a closer look at the current trends of the European electricity markets, it becomes obvious that the liberalisation not only implies opportunities but also risks for the creation of a sustainable power sector. Many of these risks are due to market distortions and imperfections caused by the delay in creating a fully functional single European market. Thus, in the short-term, the market liberalisation tends to constitute more risks than opportunities without government actions to prevent these risks. In the long run, though, the efficiency gains of the sector and the appearance of new market factors are likely to bring forth the opportunities of liberalisation and actively foster a transformation towards a sustainable electricity sector.     

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.     

The promise of clean energy

The world's energy system is at least a 1.5 trillion dollars market dominated by fossil fuels, where small changes can have a large influence on efforts to reach sustainability. Renewable energy sources are key to achieving this goal. Excluding traditional biomass, in 2001 renewables represented 4.4% of primary energy consumption, unevenly distributed between developed and developing countries. Environmental problems at local, regional and global levels, as well as external dependency and security of supply will persist if we rely on an energy future based on fossil fuels. Solutions encompass extending the life of fossil fuel reserves and expanding the share of renewable in the world energy system through top down and bottom up policies, described in this paper.     

Popularizing household-scale biogas digesters for rural sustainable energy development and greenhouse gas mitigation

Biogas utilization has undergone great development in rural China since the government systematically popularized household-scale biogas digesters for meeting the rural energy needs in the 1970s. In order to comprehensively estimate the significance of biogas utilization on rural energy development and greenhouse gas emission reduction, all types of energy sources, including straw, fuelwood, coal, refined oil, electricity, LPG, natural gas, and coal gas, which were substituted by biogas, were analyzed based on the amount of consumption for the years from 1991 to 2005. It was found that biogas provided 832749.13 TJ of energy for millions of households. By the employment of biogas digesters, reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) was estimated to be 73157.59 Gg CO₂ equivalents (CO₂-eq), and the emission by the biogas combustion was only 36372.75 Gg CO₂-eq of GHG. Energy substitution and manure management, working in combination, had reduced the GHG emission efficiently. The majority of the emission reduction was achieved by energy substitution that reduced 84243.94 Gg CO₂, 3560.01 Gg CO₂-eq of CH₄ and 260.08 Gg CO₂-eq of N₂O emission. It was also predicted that the total production of biogas would reach to 15.6 billion m³ in the year 2010 and 38.5 billion m³ in the year 2020, respectively. As a result, the GHG emission reductions are expected to reach 28991.04 and 46794.90 Gg CO₂-eq, respectively.     

Household energy consumption pattern and socio-cultural dimensions associated with it: A case study of rural Haryana, India

A survey of household energy consumption pattern was carried out in a village of Jhajjhar district of Haryana, India in the year 2007. The households surveyed covered heterogeneous population belonging to different income, educational and social groups. There was more availability and utilization of solid biomass fuels as energy resources in domestic sector as compared to the commercial fuels. Dung cakes, crop residues and firewood were found to be the three main fuels used for cooking, though LPG was also used along with biomass fuels. But complete conversion to cleaner fuels has not taken place yet even in households that has been using LPG for many years. Income was an important factor determining the choice of fuel for cooking, but there were some socio-cultural factors which were equally important in making fuel preferences at household level.     

Design of 3 kW integrated power generation system from solar and biogas

Energy/Power is an important element of social and economic development. Without availability of energy at a reasonable price, there is little prospect of developing the country's economy and people's living conditions. A quarter of Pakistani population have no access to electricity, and currently a shortage of 5.0–7.0 GW power supply causes load shedding/blackout problems. In Pakistan, most of the power is generated from non-renewable sources like natural gas etc. Pakistan receives almost 15.525 × 10¹⁴ kW-hour of solar energy per year and sunshine duration is normally 8.0–10.0 h per day. Animal/farm wastes are readily available in Pakistan. Residues from these sources produce 103.0 billion m³ of biogas per year that is equivalent to 63.20 TWh. The objective of this study is energy production by using easily available indigenous resources. In this study a 3.0 kW integrated solar/biogas power generation system consist of 2.84 kW solar system and 4.0 m³ biogas system is designed and installed. This paper also present simulation model of system. A hybrid inverter is used to convert DC power of photovoltaic modules and the battery bank in to AC power and combines with the output power of biogas generator. Performance of the hybrid system are analysed from May 1, 2018 to June 15, 2018. During the test maximum power produce by the integrated system is 1.10 kW in morning, 2.14 kW in noon and 1.16 kW in afternoon.     

The environmental benefits of domestic biogas technology in rural Ethiopia

This study examined the diverse environmental impacts of domestic biogas technology in rural Ethiopia. It employed a cross-sectional survey approach involving a total of 358 sample biogas-user and non-user households. The results of the analyses showed that the substitution of traditional biomass fuels and kerosene with biogas energy enabled the biogas-user households to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on average by about 1.9 t of CO₂ equivalents per digester per year. The reduced use of chemical fertilizer also assisted GHG emission reductions. Moreover, the technology helped in reducing depletion of woody biomass through improving efficiency of energy use and energy substitutions. It assisted in improving the fertility of soil via reducing biomass removals as fuel and the direct use of nutrient enriched bio-slurry. Furthermore, the reduced biomass removals contributed to carbon sequestration. To further enhance the diverse environmental benefits of the technology, proper and uninterrupted operation and utilization of the biogas technology should be ensured; skillful and standby biogas technicians should be present at reasonable distances to provide maintenance and aftersales services. An operational platform for joint stakeholders' actions should also be in place to assist in exploiting its full potential, and seeking and realizing the carbon reduction financial incentive for the households.