China Township Electrification Program

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The China Township Electrification Program (Song Dian Dao Xiang) was a scheme to provide renewable electricity to 1.3 million people (around 200,000 households) in 1,000 townships [1] in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet. [2]

Renewable energy energy that is collected from renewable resources

Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services.

China Country in East Asia

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

Gansu Province

Gansu is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northwest of the country.

The program, one of the world's largest renewable energy rural electrification programs, used a mixture of small hydro, photovoltaics and wind power. It was launched in 2001 by the State Development Planning Commission (now the National Development and Reform Commission) [2] and was completed in 2005. [1]

Rural electrification

Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. Currently, over 1 billion people worldwide still lack household electric power - a jaw dropping 14% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into road blocks in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas. If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.

Small hydro hydroelectric project at the local level with a few MW production

Small hydro is the development of hydroelectric generation facilities on a scale corresponding to river discharge and potential, and which is suitable for local community and industry, or to contribute to distributed generation in a regional electricity grid. The definition of a "small hydro" project varies based on different consideration of what should constitute bottom and top limits from country to country, but most common range, although not binding, in capacity of "small hydro" extend between 1 to 15 megawatts (MW), and can be further subdivide by scale into "mini" (<1MW), "micro" (<100kW), "pico" (<10kW). In contrast many hydroelectric projects are of enormous size, such as the generating plant at the Three Gorges Dam at 22,500 megawatts or the vast multiple projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In India, hydro projects up to 25 MW station capacities have been categorized as Small Hydro Power (SHP) projects.

Photovoltaics Method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity

Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.

The program is being succeeded by a similar but larger China Village Electrification Program which will bring renewable electricity to 3.5 million households in 10,000 villages by 2010, to be followed by full rural electrification by 2015. [1] China committed to generating 10% of its electricity from renewables by 2010.

China Village Electrification Program

The China Village Electrification Program is a scheme to provide renewable electricity to 3.5 million households in 10,000 villages by 2010. This is to be followed by full rural electrification using renewable energy by 2015.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Renewables Global Status Report 2006 Update Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , REN21 , published 2006, accessed 2007-05-16
  2. 1 2 Township Electrification Program (fact sheet), National Renewable Energy Laboratory , published April 2004, accessed 2007-05-16
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