GOVERNMENT PROGRAMMES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

3.1. Programme for development of improved stoves and biogas technology to solve problems in connection with energy shortage in rural areas

In China, the housewife is the person mainly responsible for cooking and fire-wood collection. In some rural areas, a housewife spends about 4-8 hours or 50-90% of her time for cooking and collection of firewood. The efficiency of stoves can be improved by about 10-15 percentage points, and about one third of the

cooking time and 50% of the time spent for firewood collection can be saved. During the past 12 years, the Ministry of Agriculture has installed about 150 million efficient stoves in rural areas. This programme not only helps save energy but it also gives women more time for production and education activities. As a consequence of the improved stove programme, the economic activities of women in some rural areas have become an important source of income.

In China, biogas is not only used as fuel for cooking and lighting; its residual liquid and sludge can also be utilized and thus its economic return significantly improved.

In 1994, there were 5.3 million users of biogas digesters in rural areas and the average biogas generation was 273 m3 per household; compared with 1993, the number of biogas digesters increased by 266 000. There were also over 600 large scale projects which used organic sewage from industries and agriculture; they supplied biogas to over 84 000 households in urban areas throughout the year;

the average biogas supply to households was 438 m3 annually. In addition, 12 800 facilities used biogas for storage of grain, with a capacity of 126 kt; this prevented the loss of 129 kt of grain. Seeds soaked in the slurry from biogas digesters were sown on agricultural land of an area of 268 000 ha; the increment in grain output was 130 kt.

Biogas technologies can be used to treat sewage from townships; in 1993, there were 24 800 biogas projects for sewage purification, which treated the domestic sewage from 2.5 million people.

3.2. Development programme for small hydropower resources for rural electrification

China has more hydropower resources than any other country, but only a fraction of these resources has been developed. More than 5000 rivers in China have catchment areas exceeding 100 km2. The total hydropower potential in China was estimated at 676 GW. In addition, there are small hydropower resources with a potential of 70 GW, of which approximately 21% are currently being utilized.

Compared with coal, which is abundant yet unevenly distributed, water resources are more equally distributed in China. For instance, more than 1000 counties in China have small hydropower resources. In the south-western region of the country, where coal is scarce, there are about 70% of the total hydropower resources.

Small hydropower facilities are power stations with a total capacity of less than 25 MW. Because of their small size, their development can be adapted to the small scale investment possibilities of rural areas. In the past ten years, the capacity of small hydropower facilities has been increased by about 1 GW per annum; 20% of the small hydropower resources has been exploited, whereas only less than 10% of the large hydropower resources has been exploited.

The use of small scale hydropower represents one of the major measures for rural electrification. In China, rural electrification is implemented mainly in three ways: (1) extension of the power network; (2) development of small scale hydropower facilities; and (3) installation of small scale fossil fuel (mainly coal and diesel) power generators. In the present situation, small scale hydropower contributes about 20% of the total rural electricity supply (see Table IV).

TABLE IV. POWER RESOURCES FOR RURAL ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

Electricity resources Electricity supply

(TW-h) Percentage

Large power network 128.2 73

Small hydropower 3 1 . 6 18

Small thermal power 12.8 7.5

Small diesel power 2 . 6 1.5

Total 175.2 100

Because of the large contribution of small scale hydropower resources, the State Council, through the Ministry of Water Resources, instituted in 1983 a programme for rural electrification in 100 pilot counties located in regions that are inaccessible to the national power grid. The principal goals of the programme were:

an installed capacity of 100 W per capita and an annual average electricity consump-tion of 200 kW-h per capita. By the end of 1989, 88% of the pilot counties had achieved these objectives. Between 1982 and 1989, the average net income per capita in the 100 pilot counties had increased from 200 to 500 yuan, with some counties reporting average per capita incomes as high as 1000 yuan. According to statistics from the 100 pilot counties, the total installed capacity reached 3040 MW, largely because of the increase in small hydropower installations.

3.3. Renewable energy development programme for elimination of poverty

There are about 80 million poor people in China, and about 100 million people have no electricity. Chinese ministries and commissions initiated several pro-grammes for the development of renewable energy resources for power generation in connection with the programme for the elimination of poverty.

As one example, the State Planning Commission instituted a solar power generation programme together with the Ministry of Power. The aim of this programme was to use solar and wind energy for power generation in order to supply electricity to rural households in the north-western part of China and in other suitable areas. This programme was supported by bilateral and multilateral agreements. Solar power supply systems were set up in Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai and other areas, and wind power generators were installed in Inner Mongolia and in the eastern coastal region.

The Ministry of Water Resources launched a so-called 'warming spring' programme to promote the utilization of mini hydropower systems for direct supply of electricity to rural households or small businesses. The capacity of mini hydropower systems is less than 100 kW, with an average of several kilowatts; these systems supply electricity to households or small communities. Because of their low cost, mini hydropower systems are well accepted by the rural population. In most areas, the cost of electricity from mini hydropower installations is about 3000 to 4000 yuan per kilowatt, which is cheaper than that from small and large scale hydropower installations. The other advantage of mini hydropower systems is that no transmission network is required, which is usually the most expensive part of power systems.

The provision of solar housing systems for schools in northern parts of China (especially at 39-45° northern latitude) is the target of another important programme for the development of renewable energy carried out by the State Education Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture. In most of the northern parts of China, heating of houses is required during winter. However, in poor areas, primary schools usually have no heating systems. By providing solar housing systems for schools, the temperature inside the houses could be raised by about 10°C. Rural households in this part of the country could also benefit from this programme.

3.4. Integrated energy development programme for rural economies

In the early 1980s, an Integrated Rural Energy Development Programme (IREDP) was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Water Resources. The principles of IREDP are as follows:

(1) provision of base energy supply under local conditions; (2) use of different energy resources that complement each other; (3) promotion of integrated utilization of energy resources; and (4) efficient use of energy and other resources. The main goal was to develop a least-cost energy supply programme for economic develop-ment and improvedevelop-ment of the living conditions in rural areas; this programme should mainly be based on local resources, i.e. new and renewable energy resources and technologies. In the early 1980s, three counties, located in south, central and north China, were selected to perform pilot demonstrations of IREDP. By the end of the 1980s, following the successful completion of these demonstrations, another

12 counties, representative of the various regions, were chosen for a large scale pilot demonstration of IREDP, which was instituted as the key project of scientific research during the seventh five-year plan. In the pilot phase, the rural counties benefitted from the least-cost energy supply programme, especially from the utiliza-tion of renewable energy resources and technologies. In comparison with other counties, the economic growth of these counties was fast. Since the benefit of IREDP had been verified, in the next period (that of the eighth five-year plan) the State Council instituted a large scale demonstration programme for integrated energy development — the so-called 100 counties programme. According to the evaluation of the results of this programme after five years, the 100 counties programme had been successful in the development of renewable energies suitable for adaptation to the rural economy. As calculated by the MOA, the potential energy supply from biomass had been increased to about ten million tee, through firewood plantations and utilization of solar heating panels and solar thermal power generation. About 40 million tee of energy could be saved by the provision of improved stoves and by other energy conservation and energy efficiency measures after demonstration of the programme in about 140 counties. Recently, the State Council approved a programme for another 100 counties for integrated rural economic development. A large amount of experience with renewable technologies and resource utilization for rural economic development has been acquired.

4. COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY