ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN RURAL CHINA - Economics of Sustainable Energy in Agriculture - page 195

remote (no-electricity) areas, and their sales volume was about 1.1
Megawatts per year (China Government 2000b).
Total installed capacity of wind power is up to 26,000 kilowatts.
Since the 1980s, 50 to 200 watt micro wind power generators have
successfully been developed and put into mass production. At present,
there are about 120,000 sets of such generators operating in the grasslands
of pastoral areas in Neil Mongol, Xinjiang, Qinghai and other coastal areas
where there is no power grid (China Government 2000b).
In rural China, the development of geothermal resources also plays
a role. By 1995, rural geothermal energy production reached 0.85 Mtce,
accounting for 15.3 percent of total renewable energy production in rural
China (Table 14.1).
Although China's rural areas have abundant potential of renewable
energy resources and have achieved remarkable progress in the
development of renewable energy, production of renewable energy is still
in its infancy. Renewable energy consumption accounts for about 0.7% of
total consumption of rural energy (Table 14.2). There is a huge potential
for China to develop rural renewable energy because of the abundant
potential of renewable energy resources in rural China and achievements
obtained in the development of renewable energy in other countries.
3. ENERGY DEMAND IN RURAL CHINA
Energy consumption in rural China has a unique structure. The energy
consumption is divided into two components, one for productive economic
activities and one for rural household's living. The energy used for
economic activities (mainly coal, electricity and oil) is commercial energy.
Most of the energy used for household's living is non-commercial energy
obtained from traditional biomass (firewood and straw). It accounts for 67
percent of energy consumption for living and 58 percent of total energy