Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Rural household energy consumption and its implications for

eco-environments in NW China: A case study
Hewen Niu a, b, *, Yuanqing He a, b, *, Umberto Desideri c, **, Peidong Zhang d, Hongyi Qin e,
Shijin Wang a
a
State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Lanzhou 730000, China
b
MOE Key Laboratory of Western Chinas Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou
730000, China
c
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Universita di Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy
d
College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
e
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 18 February 2013
Accepted 31 July 2013
Available online 30 August 2013

Rural household energy consumption plays an essential role in the daily life of farmers, especially in
developing regions. In this paper, we present a study of household energy consumption in terms of energy
sources and energy end uses, and analysis of technical and economic issues associated with the use of
biomass and renewable energy and the replacement of fossil fuels. Results show that energy from biomass
represents the largest share of total energy supply, and that 41.15% of total energy is consumed for home
heating and cooking. The average cost of household energy is 1259 RMB ($US193.6) and this expense is no
longer subsidized by the government. It takes less than one year to make a solar stove protable and less
than two years to pay back the household cost of biogas digesters. An 8 m3 digester can produce as much
energy as 500e550 kg of standard coal or 940 kg of rewood, while a solar stove can generate 1.76
103 MJ
heat each year. Moreover, it is estimated that in rural China the annual reduction of CO2 and SO2 emissions
in 2020, due to the replacement of fossil fuel by biomass, will be 68.86
106 and 54.37
104 tons,
respectively. Overall, the investigations and analyses have revealed that the structure of rural household
energy consumption is undergoing a transformation from traditional low-efciency biomass domination
to integrated consumption of traditional and renewable energies. Renewable energy will signicantly
contribute to the sustainable development of rural households.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Biomass resources
Emission reduction
Energy use
Renewable energy

1. Introduction
Energy poverty is a global threat to sustainable development
and improved livelihoods, making the availability of clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable energy a central issue to national
sustainable development objectives. Among the estimated 2.5
billion people around the world that do not have access to modern
fuels, burning of biomass in traditional stoves is associated with a
host of ills [1]. Indoor air pollution (IAP) or Household Air Pollution

* Corresponding authors. Suite 216, No. 1 Science Research Building, 320, West
Donggang Road, Lanzhou city 730000, China. Tel./fax: 86 931 4967371.
** Corresponding author. Tel.: 39 0755853743; fax: 39 0755853736.
E-mail addresses: niuhw11@lzu.edu.cn (H. Niu), yqhe@lzb.ac.cn (Y. He),
umberto.desideri@unipg.it (U. Desideri).
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.07.045

(HAP) from traditional biomass burning contributes to serious

health problems, particularly cancer and respiratory infections that
cause an estimated 4 million deaths annually (3.5 million from
direct premature deaths, 0.5 million from child pneumonia) [2e5].
Moreover, a growing body of literature suggests that incomplete
combustion products and black carbon from traditional biomass
burning have a signicant contribution to climate change [6,7].
Technologies are reasonably well-established for improved
cookstoves that burn biomass more cleanly and efciently, and
could thus help mitigate the above problems [8e10]. Clean energy
generation becomes more crucial every day due to the growing
signicance of environmental issues. Especially after the oil crisis of
1973 caused soaring fuel prices, there has been a strong body of
research into renewable energy technologies. Currently, renewable
energy resources supply about 14% of total world energy demand
and their future potential is remarkable [11e13].

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H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

With the rapid social and economic development since the reform and opening policy of China in 1978, the structure of rural
household energy consumption is experiencing dramatic changes.
Historically, energy is one of the most basic needs for human existence and development. A shortage of energy supply severely
affects the quality of life. In underdeveloped countries, where
electric energy and fuels are not widely accessible, an increase in
energy consumption is necessary to improve the quality of life.
However, where electric energy and fuels for heating and cooking
are easily accessible to the vast majority of people and where
reducing the energy intensity is one of the primary societal goals, it
is of prime importance to introduce systems that have high efciency to avoid further steps to replace obsolete and inefcient
systems. With this in mind, we can actually state that increasing
energy consumption is linked to economic development. Up to the
rst oil crisis in 1973, energy consumption and economic growth
increased in tandem, giving the impression that in order to have
economic growth, energy consumption must increase, though such
a link was broken for many industrialized countries [14].
Due to the scarcity and unavailability of commercial energy
sources in most rural areas of China, the energy demand of rural
households has heavily relied on traditional self-produced fuels,
such as rewood, crop residues, and animal dung. Traditional
biomass stoves cause signicant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
due to formation of products of incomplete combustion [15e18].
The greatest dependence on traditional fuels in developing
countries is in rural areas. In 1975, it was estimated that only 15% of
commercial energy consumption in these countries took place in the
rural areas [19]. In rural Africa, the gathering of fuel-wood and other
traditional fuels is a strenuous and time consuming task mainly
performed by women. Modern fuels and appliances allow households to reduce their exposure to smoke from biomass cookers and
heaters [20,21]. The energy consumption in rural areas of China deserves more attention, especially from the perspective of its relations
with energy demand and supply, land degradation, social behavior
and lifestyle changes, and GHG reduction strategies [22]. Due to the
large population of China, high demand of all energy sources and low
utilization efciency, the Chinese government faces a distinct challenge in its plans for nationwide CO2 emission reductions.
Like many other developing countries, China has a renewable
energy program for its citizens living in rural areas, which are often
very remote. Within the framework of this program, many
renewable energy technologies have been, and are being developed
to reduce rural energy shortages [23,24]. The two most important
renewable energy technologies used in rural areas of China are
biogas digesters and solar stoves. Biogas production is an important
aspect of Chinas energy strategy [25].
In the study area of Gansu province, Northwest China, the rural
energy construction program was initiated in the 1970s, having
thus experienced a relatively long history. In 2000 the national
government strengthened the program and Gansus rural renewable energy construction proted of this development opportunity.
Therefore, the construction of renewable energy systems, especially rural biogas digesters, had reached its peakeabout 78% of the
digesters built by the government are still in operation. At the end
of 2007, rural biogas digesters could be found in 308,000 households, covering 60% of rural areas. Concurrently, 788,000 solar
stoves were distributed in Gansu province. The annual energy
saved by these renewable energy techniques (including wind energy, hydropower etc.) implemented in Northwest China was
equivalent to 1.84 million tons of standard coal. Of these the wind
energy and hydropower contributed to approximately 22.7% and
37.1% of the renewable energy, respectively.
Apart from the shortage of energy supply in remote areas, the
use of renewable energy has other benets in poverty alleviation.

For example, the use of the residue from biogas digestion has a
positive effect on farm production, and thus farm income; the solar
stove is completely non-polluting and environmentally friendly
and local households saw great benets (mainly ecological) from its
use. Renewable energy systems installed in Costa Rica [26] and
Egypt [27] showed similar effects. In Lesotho, Taele et al. [28]
argued that with proper economic support and utilization of efcient renewable energy technologies, developing countries can
meet their basic energy demands and alleviate the problems of
energy shortages. In Zimbabwe, tremendous economic, social and
environmental benets have been achieved from using solar water
heating technology [29,30].
Previous research had explored the changes in energy consumption in Southern China [31e35], but quality data for Northwest China are lacking. There are clear differences between the two
regions as far as rural household energy consumption is concerned.
In Northwest Chinas long and cold winter, large amounts of energy
are consumed for home heating. In addition, the rural economy of
Northern China is poorer, and the natural environment more
vulnerable than in southern China. We conducted studies in 2012 in
two representative counties of Gansu Province, Northwest China, to
better understand the status of energy consumption and the issues
concerning renewable energy utilization. We investigated household energy consumption structure, economic costs and benets of
renewable energy, and quantity of GHG and pollutant emissions,
and estimated the potential of emission reductions from the
replacement of fossil fuel.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Description of study area
Northwest China (92130 w108 460 E, 32 310 w42 570 N), lies in
the northern upper-basin of the Wei River [36], the largest branch
of the Yellow River. Sparse vegetation and loose soil structure in the
region offers poor protection against heavy rainfall events, leading
to severe soil displacements and water loss. Gansu Province,
Northwest China, has a complex topography with crisscrossing
mountain ranges, and signicantly elevation variation. The mean
elevation of Gansu is 1200 m above sea level and its ecosystem is
very vulnerable, with severe soil erosion and limited water resources. Western Gansu is covered by vast deserts and Eastern
Gansu by several humid zones as well as multiple meteorological
types of cold and dry zones, all often subject to drought. The upper
westerlies are the prevailing winds over the entire area and most of
precipitation/moisture is transported from the west by the atmospheric circulation.
Gansu province is prone to many kinds of natural and meteorological disasters, which have a strong impact on the local social
and economic development. The major disasters include drought,
landslides, debris ow, earthquakes, dust storms, and frost.
Drought and landslides are predominant with high rate of incidence. In addition, compared with other provinces in China, Gansu
is underdeveloped with lower per capita and gross income, and
lower per capita energy consumption. Energy use is minimal, with
rural households obtaining fuel from local sources, in most cases for
heating and cooking only. A biomass mix of straw, wood, weeds and
animal dung is used for cooking and space heating, which means
that there is a competition between its uses as fuel, fodder and
organic fertilizer [36].
Gansu has a total population of 26 million and an area of
454,574 km2 with a tillage area amounting to 46,852 km2. The
climate is a temperate, semi-arid type with annual precipitations
reaching 400 mm (generally, the climate of this area is inuenced
by the light monsoon in summer and the strong westerlies in

H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

spring and winter). Rainfall is mainly concentrated between June

and September with large inter-annual variations due to the
different strengths of atmospheric circulation in different seasons.
During most of the year, the area suffers from a pronounced
moisture decit and aridity. The annual average temperature
ranges from 5.9  C to 10.4  C. The area features great daily temperature range and receives a strong solar radiation or summer
insolation; its average annual exposure to sunshine is between
1700 and 3300 h.
2.2. Surveys
In February 2012, we surveyed 11 representative villages in
Tongwei and Gangu counties (Fig. 1), conducting interviews in
more than 300 rural households. Villages were located in two
different terrain types: mountain, or river plain/at roadside.
Since most farmers are illiterate in the rural communities, they
were asked to answer questions, but the questionnaires were lled
in by authors and their colleagues. Most of the interviewed people
were actively cooperative during the surveying process. The general surveys completed by householders or housewives helped us
to obtain large scale data about ecological and economic aspects, as
well as the energy consumption status of the rural households. The
data collected concerned household energy consumption, household sizes, household yearly crop output, and household annual net
income.
The surveyed households were randomly selected in all typical
11 investigated villages. Respondents were volunteers so their
participation was dictated by their willingness and whether the
farmers had available time to participate. Of our questionnaires,
91% were useful for statistical analysis. Basic information of surveyed villages is displayed in Table 1.
In 2005, the annual per capita net income of rural residents was
only 1500 RMB, (the income calculated included the household
crop income and that earned in the cities) in both Tongwei and
Gangu counties, comparable to the per capita income of 1609 RMB
in Yunnan province [31], another typical low income area in China.
Both Tongwei and Gangu county are underdeveloped areas where

139

the economic structure is based on agriculture, and are suffering

from a shortage of energy resources. Due to the extensive and
relatively large scale agricultural system in these regions, local
residents seldom move to cities to earn their living. The energy
demand of a large population puts great pressure on the resources
and environment and severely restricts the sustainable development of this region.
The major crops in the surveyed regions include winter wheat
(Triticum aestivum), corn (Zea mays), potato (Solanum tuberosum),
rape (Brassica campestris), and many types of vegetables. In addition, cereal and fruit products also contribute to crop income. The
main farm animals include cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens. Crop
farming and animal husbandry are the main two types of agricultural system in this region. The crops occupy part of the household
income as most of the harvested crops are for household sustenance and only surplus crops are sold.

2.3. Calculation method

Statistical data collected from the eld investigations were
used to calculate the economic cost of annual household energy
consumption and to evaluate the economic benets of renewable energy facilities, as well as to assess the amount of total
GHG and pollutants emitted because of energy consumption and
estimate potential emission reductions by fuel replacement. All
of these calculations were based on the following models or
theories.
2.3.1. Cost and benet calculations of household energy
consumption
Total economic costs of household energy consumption can be
evaluated using the following formula:

EC

n
X

fj mj

j 1; 2.n

(1)

j1

where
ECetotal economic cost of rural household energy
consumption;
fjecost efciency of the jth type of rural household energy;
mjeamounts of the jth type of energy consumed.
The total annual amount of heat produced by each solar stove in
the study region can be evaluated by employing the model below:

Qs p
d
m
c
t2  t1 1=10
m
Hv

(2)

where

Fig. 1. The location of Gansu province and villages investigated in Tongwei and Gangu
counties.

Qsethe annual amount of heat obtained from using a solar stove

per household (unit: MJ);
peaverage population per household in the study area (about 5
(4.97 on average));
medaily consumption amount of boiled water per person, 2.8 kg
[37], 1/10 of which is lost for evaporation during cooking;
dethe effective usage days of solar stove in a year (220 days);
cespecic heat of water, 4.20 kJ/(kg$ C);
HveLatent heat of vaporization at atmospheric pressure,
2257.2 kJ/kg;
t1ethe original water temperature before being heated by solar
stove; we use the local annual mean temperature 8  C as its
value [38];
t2ewater temperature after being heated by solar stove (boiled
water), 100  C.

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H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

Table 1
Basic characteristics of villages investigated in the Tongwei and Gangu Counties.
Location
Tongwei County
Guhe
Niuyao
Yangpo
Bojiwan
Liubu
Qiyao
Gangu County
Dashi
Weizui
Cangwang
Lixin
Yaozhuang
a

Terrain

Altitude (m)

Total number
of households

Latitude

Longitude

Per door
farmland (ha)

Per capita net

income (RMBa)

River plain
Mountain
Flat area
River plain
Mountain
Mountain

1434
1488
1570
1495
1634
1752

122
58
64
19
89
112

34 50N
34 58N
34 49N
34 37N
34 54N
34 41N

105 11E
105 10E
105 07E
105 09E
105 17E
105 12E

1.64
1.49
0.99
1.55
1.71
1.78

1300
1270
1330
980
1160
1050

Mountain
Flat area
Mountain
Plain
Flat area

1787
1264
1631
1416
1238

132
79
147
91
81

34 55N
34 39N
34 42N
34 54N
34 43N

105 11E
105 16E
105 13E
105 16E
105 19E

0.76
0.48
1.81
0.95
1.68

1400
1300
1150
1200
1600

1 RMB $US 0.1538.

In addition, the total annual heat produced by a biogas digester

can be calculated according to the formula:

Qb v
d
h
h

(3)

where
Qbetotal annual heat generated by biogas (MJ);
vedaily gas generation rate (m3/day);
detotal days that a digester can generate gas. Note that in simple
biogas digesters, which are not heated by an external heat
source, the number of days may be less than 365 since in a
number of days the external temperature may be so low to stop
or reduce considerably the digestion process. A reasonable
number of days with biogas production, in the climatic conditions of the Gansu province, is 240.
hecaloric value of biogas (kJ/m3);
hethermal efciency of biogas cooker.

2.3.2. GHG and pollutant emissions

The levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) and airborne pollutants
(AP) emitted from rural household energy consumption can be
determined by using the following model:

EQi

m
X

MFij
Cij

j 1; 2.m

(4)

j1

where EQi is the amount of the ith GHG or AP emission from

household energy consumption (kg or m3); MFij is the amount of
the jth fuel which corresponds to the emission of the ith gas (kg or
m3); and Cij is the emission factor for the ith gas of the jth type fuel
(g/kg or kg/m3).
3. Results
3.1. Actual energy consumption structure in rural families
Currently, rural inhabitants mainly use energy for cooking,
boiling water for tea, heating water, heating spaces, lighting and
electrical home appliances. Energy is supplied as rewood, crop
resides, coal, animal dung, biogas from biomass, as well as solar
energy and electricity. Rural household energy consumption
structure is shown in Table 2.
The data in Table 2 show that annual average energy consumption per household is 319.85 kgce per person, noticeably lower
than in cities and industrialized areas. Energy consumption per

capita in rural household is approximately 65% of that (490.37 kgce

per capita [39]) in urban households in Lanzhou city, which is the
provincial capital of Gansu province. The energy sources available to
peasants can only meet their basic living demand, such as cooking
and heating, and is insufcient to improve their standard of living.
The energy used in this region can be divided into three types: lowefciency energy from self-produced biomass (utilization of
biomass for heating and cooking), commercial energy (obtained
from commercial sources, and largely generated by the use of coal,
oil, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power; this includes the
use of electricity); and renewable energy from biomass (this includes biogas and solar energy such as the systems described above
and subsidized by the government). Household energy consumption mainly depends on locally available energy resources,
including natural products and wastes (51.98% of total household
energy) and commercial energy (42.81% of total household energy),
as well as some amount of renewable energy. Cooking accounts for
28.17% of total energy use, 41.47% is used for heating kang-beds, and
22.30%, 4.02% and 2.80% for furnaces, boiling water for tea and
lighting, respectively. Gansu Province has much longer periods of
cold weather than other areas in the Northwest, particularly in the
winter months (November to January). Local farmers typically use a
kang (a traditional or improved cooking stove or combined space
heating system in rural residential houses) and a furnace to keep
the living room warm. A kang requires large amounts of straw and
stalks, and the furnace requires large quantities of coal and rewood. The kang has a very low-efciency of combustion and large
amount of self-produced biomass is necessary. It is important to
note that boiling water for tea also consumes a certain amount of
energy. Preparing and drinking tea by using rewood is a traditional
habit in the rural regions of Gansu, but since solar energy was
gradually introduced into these regions, solar stoves are occasionally used for making tea, signicantly reducing the amount of
rewood consumed for this end-use. However, only a small share of
renewable energy is employed to supply the energy demand of
rural households. The traditional rural energy use habits/patterns
and the end uses largely prevented the promotion of renewable
energy systems. The furnace and the kang are the two dominating
energy end uses, but their particular structure is unsuitable for the
use of biogas digesters and/or solar stoves. Thus, biogas and solar
stoves still account for only a small share of the total rural household energy consumption, even though they are currently the most
promising energy systems to achieve widespread renewable energy
use in rural areas of Northwest China. It is worthwhile to further
promote the use of these two energy sources and their utilization in
the Northwest of China or other similar areas that suffer from energy shortage.

H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

141

Table 2
Structure of per household rural energy consumption in Gansu province (kgce) (1 kgce 29.31 MJ).
Energy use

Crop residues

Firewood

Coal

Dung

Electricity

Biogas

Solara

Total

Cooking
Boiling tea
Kang
Furnace
Lighting
Home appliance
Total

123.55
e
59.41
e
e
e
182.96

87.07
35.97
e
15.42
e
e
138.46

116.4
e
60.6
334.2
e
e
511.18

e
e
493.32
e
e
e
493.32

38.78
23.26
36.56
e
41.69
19.42
159.71

51.41
e
e
e
2.15
e
53.56

24.24
3.82
e
e
e
e
28.06

441.45
63.05
649.92
349.57
43.84
19.42
1567.25

Effective heat energy of a solar stove of 1.5 m2 in area is converted into 316 kgce.

3.2. Economic cost of energy consumption

3.3. Benets of renewable energy facilities

We surveyed farmers to understand annual cash ow concerning household energy consumption of rural areas in 11 representative villages of the Gansu province (Table 3). We calculated the
cost coefcient of each type of commercial energy from the local
county-level energy bureaus. The cost of self-produced biomass
energy sources (straw, rewood and animal dung) was calculated
by using the standard coal equivalents into which their materials
are converted when used as fuels by the energy replacement
method. In Table 4, we show the cost coefcients of these energy
sources. Annual total economic cost or cash ow of each household
for energy consumption can be evaluated by combining the use of
the formula (1) and the data presented in Tables 3 and 4. Calculation results show that the total annual economic cost per rural
household is 1259 RMB. The bill for commercial energy accounts for
53.59% of the total economic cost, while renewable energy only
makes up 3.78%. The weighted arithmetic mean of net income of
the investigated households is 6115.8 RMB, with the cost of energy
accounting for 18%, a very large share compared with other areas of
China and the world.
For comparison, data from Eurostat, the EU ofce for ofcial
statistics show that average consumed primary energy per dwelling is 1.5 TOE per year with an average income per household of
30,000 V. Only 3% of the primary energy is used for cooking and
approximately 12% for water heating. The rest is used for space
heating. Average consumption of electricity per dwelling is
approximately 4000 kWh per year, ranging from less than 2000 in
Latvia and Lithuania to over 7000 in Finland. The average price of
electricity is 0.2 V/kWh, which multiplied by 4000 kWh gives an
electricity expense of 800 V per household. The average cost of
natural gas, the commonest fuel in the EU for heating and cooking,
is 21.9 V/GJ. The yearly bill for heating and cooking is approximately
1300 V per household. The energy for cooking, being only 3% of the
primary energy consumed by the household, the relative cost is 63
V per year. Total energy costs for a household are over 2100 V,
representing 7% of the household income.
Chinese urban households and households in relatively developed areas of China consume energy mainly in the forms of electricity and natural gas [39], and have high annual incomes (above
20,000 RMB), therefore, energy cost in those households accounts
for a similarly small part of the income, 8%.

3.3.1. Heat generation of solar stove

In the studied area, almost every household uses a solar stove to
heat water and occasionally to prepare tea (the solar stove is a piece of
equipment which works by concentrating the solar radiations onto
one point where the pot can be placed, providing free hot water).
Although its structure is relatively simple, it has a real practical
meaning in rural dwellings. The total number of solar stoves used in
the rural households of Gansu was 750,635 at the end of 2011.
The information gathered from the detailed surveys and investigations conducted in the mountainous region of Gansu Province, together with the local actual utilization conditions of solar
stoves can be used to determine the annual amount of heat
generated in each household according to equation (2):

Qs 5
220
2:8
4:2
100  8 0:28
2257:2

1:76
103 MJ
Thus the annual amount of heat generated by each solar stove is
1.76
103 MJ, which can be converted to the standard coal equivalent of 316 kg (caloric value 29.307 MJ, heat efciency 20%). At
the current market price of coal (0.67 RMB/kg), the economic value
is 298.3 RMB ($US 45.87). The construction cost of a solar stove
used in Northwest China is 150 RMB, thus allowing its savings to
pay back its cost in less than one year. The full life span is estimated
to be at least 10 years.
3.3.2. Economic benets of the biogas digester
A large number of bio-digesters (1.1 million in Gansu at the end
of 2011) have been built in the study area, often replacing traditional cooking stoves, because of their convenience. In addition,
biogas is also cleaner, healthier and more efcient. The economic
benets of the biogas digester can be assessed according to the
standard coal equivalent of biogas heat.
According to our results, the daily gas generation rate of a
digester ranges from 1.1 to 2.3 m3/d, and the mean consumption of
gas in each household is 1.2 m3/d. Excess production can be stored
in plastic bags or HDPE tanks, or in some cases, burned off.
A digester can normally generate gas 240 days per year.
Generally, the caloric value of biogas is 20,920 kJ/m3 and the

Table 3
Actual consumed amount of rural energy per household in the Gansu Province in 2011.
Energy use

Crop residues (kg)

Firewood (kg)

Coal (kg)

Dung (kg)

Electricity (kWh)

Biogas (m3)

Solar (set)

Cooking
Boiling tea
Kang
Furnace
Lighting
Electrical
appliances
Total

304.95
e
253.76
e
e
e

103.41
61.35
e
29.54
e
e

328.49
e
74.91
475.91
e
e

e
e
656.8
e
e
e

87.98
44.57
30.74
e
102.19
51.69

64.27
e
e
e
3.43
e

1.05
0.24
e
e
e
e

558.7

194.3

879.3

656.8

324.2

67.7

1.3

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H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

Table 4
Cost coefcients of rural household energy consumption in the Gansu Province in 2011.a
>Unit of measure

Crop straw (kg)

Grass (kg)

Firewood (kg)

Dung (kg)

Coal (kg)

Electricity (kWh)

Biogas (m3)

Solar (set)

Cost (yuan)b

0.297

0.285

0.338

0.359

0.67

0.495

0.327

15.0

a
b

The cost coefcients slightly different with its value in 2005 [36].
1 RMB $US 0.1538.

thermal efciency of biogas cooker is 55% [37]. Therefore the total

annual heat produced by biogas is (Eqn. (3)):

Qb 1:2
240
20920
0:55 3:314
103 MJ

The total heat is equivalent to that produced by 565 kg of
standard coal (heat efciency: 20%), amounting to 533.2 RMB ($US
82). The initial construction cost of an 8 m3 biogas digester is about
1800 RMB ($US 277), and the local government subsidies 1000 RMB
for each household in the framework of favorable policies to speed
up the development of rural regions, so the construction cost of a
digester for each family is equivalent to 800 RMB (not including the
maintenance cost, which is negligible in comparison with the
construction cost). The payback time for total cost is shorter than 4
years, and for household cost less than 2 years.
The aforementioned economic benets of these two forms of
renewable energy applications are generally consistent with the
results of Guo et al. [37], whose research team focused on the
benets analysis related to renewable energy utilization in rural
areas of China.
3.4. Ecological benets of renewable energy
Excessive exploitation of biomass and inappropriate energy
consumption by rural households have caused environmental
deterioration and have badly inuenced regional sustainable
development in terms of energy, societal needs, economy,
ecology, and environment. The direct burning of biomass also
causes the loss of fertility, contamination of air, and use of labor
in collection [40]. However the introduction of renewable energy in rural households has brought substantial ecological
benets.
First, the replacement of fossil fuel consumption by biogas and
solar stoves were benecial to rural pollution control. Biogas production can use up to 1.7 t of raw materials (including animal dung,
straw, crop residues) and produce 1.2 t of unharmful manure
annually, which signicantly improved the local sanitary conditions. By sprinkling fermented liquor or dregs on vegetable leaves,
diseases and insect pests were also successfully controlled, allowing pesticide reduction, which was considerably favorable to the
local eco-environment and farmers economic burden.
Second, according to the investigations, an 8 m3 biogas digester
can save about 1.3 t of rewood annually, equivalent to protecting
2.2 m2 of articial forest. As 1,008,527 rural households in Gansu
used biogas in 2011, therefore 2 km2 of forest could be saved in one
year. In addition, based on the calculation method in section 2.3.1,
one digester could produce at least 300 m3 of biogas each year,
corresponding to 500e550 kg of standard coal or approximately
940 kg of rewood. One solar stove could generate 1.76
103 MJ
heat each year, corresponding to 316 kg of standard coal or 553 kg
rewood. Their contribution to the energy used by farmers, successfully prevented trees from being cut in the Northwest China.
Third, it effectively improved soil fertility and reduced the soil
pollution from chemical fertilizers and pesticide applications [41].
The construction of the biogas digester also promoted the development of an organic agricultural system (breeding-biogasplanting system).

The spread of household biogas and solar stoves ensured a local

supply of renewable energy, increased the farmers income, and
improved their living conditions. The present research reveals that
a benecial cycle was established within the ecological system that
closely linked biogas producing, crop planting and domestic animal
feeding, due to the effective use of nutrient materials, biological
energy and solar energy (Fig. 2).
3.5. Amount of GHG and atmospheric pollutant
Using equation (4), we can easily calculate the amount of GHG
and AP emitted by rural households, and their reduction resulting
from solar stoves and biogas replacement of self-produced biomass
combustion.
In model 4, the emission factors are considerably different
among counties or regions due to energy combustion efciencies,
stove types, fuels, and life habits of farmers. As a result, any available specic national emission factor should be used rst. A database for greenhouse gases and other airborne pollutants from
household stoves in China has been reported by Zhang et al. [42].
Combining with the characteristics of local rural household energy
consumption, CO2 and CH4 factors for straw, rewood, dung and
coal were used. Emission factors of SO2, NOx and total suspended
particulates (TSP) for the same fuels have also been considered in
this study (see Table 5).
Straw, rewood and coal are commonly used in rural households for cooking and heating. According to formula (4), combined
with the data from Tables 3 and 4, the annual amount of GHG and
AP emitted by each household can be quantitatively determined.
Table 6 presents the amount of GHG and AP from fuel combustion
in rural households of the Northwest. The annual total GHG and AP
emissions contributed by each household are 3234.35 and 21.65 kg,
respectively. Emissions of CO2 make up most of the total household
GHG emission (99.82%), with 40.49% of CO2 emitted from coal
consumption, followed by 25.36% from dung, 24.85% from straw

Fig. 2. Nutrient cycle and energy ow among the different components of the rural
energy consumption system.

H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

Table 5
GHG and AP emission factors by fuel type (g/kg).

Straw
Firewood
Coal
Dung
Biogas (g/m3)
a
b
c
d
e
f

Ref.
Ref.
Ref.
Ref.
Ref.
Ref.

CO2

SO2

NOx

TSP

CH4

1436a
1250a
1487a
1247b
850c

0.53d
0.63d
13.40a
0.67f
e

1.29d
0.70d
1.88d
e
e

7.5d
6.0d
1.3d
e
e

4.56e
2.70e
2.92e
e
0.026c

[43].
[44].
[45].
[46].
[42].
[47].

combustion, and 7.51% from rewood. Compared with CO2 emissions, other gaseous emissions make up only a small portion of the
total rural gaseous emissions per household from fuel combustion
(0.84%). However, they may be quite signicant if the exhaust gases
are not disposed correctly outside the house. Clearly, energy from
biomass combustion is the dominant source of rural carbon
emissions.
Based on the quantity of GHG and AP emissions from each
households fuel combustion, it is not difcult to calculate the total
amount of gaseous emissions from all the rural households of
Gansu province. In 2011, the 454,000 rural households emitted
1.47
106 t of GHG and 9.83
103 t of AP.
4. Discussions
4.1. Transformation of the energy consumption structure
The structure of current household energy consumption in
Northwest China is primarily dominated by the available selfproduced biomass resources (including straw, rewood, crop residues and animal dung) followed by commercial energy and
renewable energy. The adoption of fuel types in local areas is
substantially affected by several factors including the economy,
local energy resources, feasibility, climate, social structure, availability, endowment, symbolization of life quality [33] or culture,
geographical location, and farmers preferences. For example, there
are abundant straw and dung resources at the local level, due to
the underdeveloped economy of the local area, and considering
the cost of energy consumption, local farmers prefer to use the
self-produced biomass than more efcient renewable sources.
However, cash ow for energy use accounts for a signicant
amount (18%) of total household net income, and the payback time
of the investment for the construction of biogas and solar stoves
for each household is shorter than 2 years, so using these renewable energy sources in rural households is benecial and represents a target within reach. These results are consistent with Li
et al. [36], who studied economic and environmental costs of rural
household energy consumption under different energy structures,
and proposed that costs are lower when biogas and solar energy

Table 6
Amount of GHG and AP emitted from each households fuel combustion in the NW
China (kg).

Straw
Firewood
Coal
Dung
Biogas
Total

CO2

CH4

SO2

NOx

TSP

802.3
242.3
1307.5
819.1
57.6
3228.8

2.6
0.53
2.6
e
0.002
5.7

0.3
0.12
11.8
0.44
e
12.7

0.72
0.14
1.65
e
e
2.5

4.19
1.17
1.14
e
e
6.5

143

are used exclusively. This energy structure is quite suitable for rural
areas, and is one to which other regions should switch in the
future.
In addition, the structure of rural household energy consumption in Northwest China can be summarized by the fact that a large
proportion of energy consumption is for cooking and heating, in
order to maintain basic human survival needs. There is little energy
consumption for the purposes of lighting, amusement and sanitation, which can greatly improve living standards. This indicates the
relatively low general living standard of local farmers. This scenario
is similar to the energy consumption in South Africa, where families
use solar cookers on 38% of all days and for 35% of all cooked meals
and express clear preferences for certain cooker types. Solar
cookers, together with wood (stoves and open res, used on 42% of
all days), are the cooking appliances most used [48]. For local
economic development, it is necessary to increase farmers income
in order to encourage the use of high-quality commercial energy
and sustainable and cost-efcient renewable energy and decrease
the levels of traditional biomass energy used. This is necessary to
improve the household energy consumption structure and to successfully fulll the demand for more comfortable, convenient, and
healthy living conditions.
Considering the environmental effects and energy supply, the
current energy consumption structure in the rural areas of Gansu
province is not sustainable and thus needs to be optimized.
Fortunately, the structure of energy use in Northwest China is in the
process of transformation, since the biogas and solar energy are
incorporated in the local energy consumption structure, and denitely replaced relatively large amounts of low-efciency biomass
energy. Through our economic costs and benets analyses of biogas
and solar stoves employed in the Gansu, it is clear that the utilization of renewable energy is cost-effective and sustainable, as well
as environmentally friendly in the long run.
Moreover, there is a large room for the development of
renewable energy in local rural areas since the energy produced by
low-efciency biomass accounts for the majority of the total energy
consumption. The use of renewable energy could somewhat
accelerate the development and transformation processes of energy consumption. The proportion of renewable energy consumption in total energy use is going to increase signicantly in the near
future; this is also the aim of our further research.
4.2. Energy saving by renewable
We have discussed the benets from biogas and solar stove
utilization in rural areas of Northwest China. Larger amounts of
fossil energy sources will be required if renewable energy systems
will not replace the traditional ones. Studies showed that the
application of biogas digesters contributed to 40% fossil fuel saving
in households of the Jiangsu and Anhui provinces [35]. At the end
of 2008, Gansu had constructed 4.54
105 household-sized biogas
digesters, and had constructed 5 medium and large scale biogas
projects. 7.5
105 set of solar stoves were installed between 2003
and 2009. In addition, 5.48
105 m2 solar heaters were installed.
During the occurrence of our investigations, about 87% of the
renewable energy facilities (biogas digesters and solar stoves) in
rural household were well maintained. These renewable energy
projects saved 2.30
106 t of standard coal equivalents. As a result,
the extra energy consumption for households in rural Gansu in
2011 would require about 3.71
104 t of standard coal equivalents,
if there were no household-scale biogas digester and solar stoves
available. In addition, in the past 8 years, the biogas and solar
stoves have provided 1.94
105 t and 1.02
105 t respectively of
standard coal equivalents, and totally saved 1.18
105 t of energy
sources.

144

H. Niu et al. / Renewable Energy 65 (2014) 137e145

Table 7
Statistical forecasting on households in rural China with biogas and solar stoves and their CO2 and SO2 emission reductions.

1993
2000
2011
2020

Households with biogas

digester (million)

Households with
solar sets (million)

Standard coal
equivalents (
106 t)

CO2 emission
reduction (
106 t)

SO2 emission
reduction (
104 t)

3.40
7.55
12.35
50.00

0.14
6.03
22.89
64.00

0.59
3.03
7.81
27.25

1.49
7.66
19.73
68.86

1.11
5.68
14.66
54.37

4.3. Forecasting emission reductions from energy substitution

GHG and AP emission reductions in future years can be estimated based on the number of households with biogas and solar
stoves as forecasted by the MOA (Ministry of Agriculture). The
construction of biogas and solar stoves has promoted the transformation of farmers living and agricultural production, and it has
brought great benets to the rural ecological environment by the
reduction of harmful gas emissions. 310,000 rural households had
constructed the biogas digesters by 2012, accounting for 8.5% of the
total rural households in which biogas energy is used in Gansu
Province. The biogas plants can save 470,000 tons of CO2 emission
reductions. Based on the statistical number of biogas and solar
stoves that have already been constructed in rural China in the past
few decades, and according to the enhanced forecast scheme of
energy for rural livelihood, (as calculated in Table 7) the number of
households that use biogas digesters and solar stoves should rise to
50 and 64 million respectively in 2020. Based on those numbers,
the forecasted CO2 and SO2 emission reductions for 2020 are estimated to be 68.86
106 and 54.37
104 tons, respectively.
5. Conclusions
Biomass and fossil fuels are currently the main energy sources for
rural household energy consumption in Gansu, Northwest China.
The predominant energy source, biomass, is used for heating and
cooking which satises the basic energy demand, and virtually no
surplus energy is used for recreation which can improve peasants
standards of life. However, biomass is used in very low-efciency
biomass combustion systems and using self-produced fuels that
are not healthy and can be used as fertilizers in agriculture.
More and more households use biogas and solar energy as a
cooking fuel and a substitute for the traditionally used lowefciency biomass or coal sources. Under the current economic
conditions and energy consumption structure of the study region,
the economic cost of energy consumption does not constitute a
threat to local household annual income. The utilization of high
efciency renewable energy and cost-free biomass energy makes a
signicant contribution to the lower household economic expenditure of this region.
Payback time spans from less than one to less than two years,
making renewable energy more feasible and protable, and promoting the sustainable development of rural households. In addition, the construction of biogas digesters and solar stoves has made
a signicant contribution to environment protection and energy
saving. The use of biogas and solar energy in local rural areas
replaced and thus reduced the quantity of self-produced biomass
and coal, which also mitigated the climate change process by GHG
emission reductions.
Furthermore, to a large extent, the appearance and development
of biogas and solar energy in rural areas has promoted the
adjustment of the household energy consumption structure, and
potentially made good use of abundant solar radiation energy and
crop residues with a low economic cost. This new or promising
technique could speed the spread of scientic knowledge in rural
areas.

This paper is an initial study on the rural household energy

consumption in Gansu, Northwest China. Further research is
required to fully demonstrate the actual benets and potential
feasibility of renewable energy in this region.
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Innovative research
group national natural science foundation of China (No: 41121001),
Foundation from the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences
(41273010; SKLCS-ZZ-2012-01-02) and the project of knowledge
innovation engineering, CAS (KZZD-EW-04-05-01) and State Natural Sciences Foundation (40971019; 40901063). The author also
would like to thank participating colleagues and farmers for their
assistance and cooperation during the household survey, especially
thanks to H.Q. Niu and Dr. Robbie Hart for their kind assistance in
the household investigation process and improving the language of
this study. The authors also wish to acknowledge two anonymous
reviewers for their constructive suggestions and comments for this
study.
Glossary

AP
GHG
HAP
HDPE
IAP
TSP

airborne pollutants
greenhouse gas
household air pollution
high-density polyethylene
indoor air pollution
total suspended particulates

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