| Access to reliable electricity and clean cooking facilities is crucial to human well-being and to a country's economic development (IEA, 2016). These two forms of modern energy services are essential for providing basic human needs such as clean water, sanitation and healthcare, and for reducing poverty (IEA, 2016). China has provided hundreds of millions of rural people with access to these two forms of modern energy services. Despite the accomplishments, still many people in China have no access to electricity, and more than 1/3 of China's population relies on biomass for cooking (NEA, 2016; IEA, 2016). Finding appropriate ways to provide modern energy services to these populations has been a key issue for Chinese government. To serve this aim, this dissertation examines off-grid renewable energy options for rural electrification and clean cooking services in rural China.;A lot of work has been done in the area of providing modern energy services by using off-grid renewable energy technologies such as solar homes systems and household biogas digester systems. For example, many studies that have focused on rural electrification indicated that solar home systems can meet the lighting and other basic electricity needs for users in rural areas (Byrne et al., 2001; Kumar & Zubair, 2012; Kamalapur & Yaragatti, 2011; Stojanovski et al., 2017; Feron, 2016; World Bank, 2016). And studies of rural cooking have revealed that a typical small-scale digester system is an essential technology for many rural households, providing a reliable source of cooking fuel (Usack et al, 2014; Rajendran et al., 2012; Tucho & Nonhebel, 2015; Amare, 2015; Raha et al., 2014; Xia, 2013). None of the above-mentioned research examines off-grid renewable options for rural energy needs in an integrated manner. In addition, studies of today have seldom mentioned of ability of off-grid renewable systems to deliver services that will provide rural households with non-economic benefits. Byrne et al. (2001) calculated the levelized costs of stand-alone PV systems for rural off-grid users in Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces. And a more recent study by IRENA (2016) studied the economic impacts of solar homes systems on rural households in Africa. In addition, studies of biogas digester systems have concluded that biogas digesters are economically more efficient than traditional cooking fuels like coal, wood and LPG and they could cause annual savings for rural communities (Yasar et al., 2017; Perez et al., 2014; Ding & Li, 2013; Usack et al., 2014; Xia, 2013). But none of these authors have mentioned about the non-economic benefits that off-grid renewable systems bring to rural households. Certainly there are non-economic benefits from lighting, TV, and clean cooking powered by solar home systems and household biogas digester systems. They may improve rural households' social activities, reducing time spent for cooking, as well as mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, the existing literature is far more concerned with economic than non-economic benefits, and it does not offer a strong case that large non-economic benefits could be obtained from renewable energy.;This dissertation develops an integrated approach to off-grid renewable energy systems for modern energy access in the context of rural China. This integrated approach is to utilize solar and biogas technologies to meet the electricity and cooking fuel demands of rural households in China. Both economic and non-economic benefits of solar and biogas off-grid technologies are assessed. This integrated approach is carried out in three phases. The first phase is an evaluation of solar and biomass resources. Given the resource assessment, the second phase is an analysis of the energy performances of off-grid renewable energy systems (a solar home system of array capacity of 520W, a household biogas digester system of 8m3 and an integrated system that combines those two resources) to be operated in rural China. And the last phase involves conducing a comprehensive assessment of sustainability performance of renewable energy options from three aspects, namely economic, social and environmental.;To carry out the resource evaluation and energy value analysis, a CEEP-developed simulation tool model, Rural Renewable Energy Analysis and Design Tool (RREAD), and an Animals Database for Energy Potential Estimation (ABEPE) model created by Batzias et al. (2005) are used to evaluate the energy performances of solar home systems and household biogas digesters in an integrated manner. This dissertation further expands the methodology developed at CEEP, employing RREAD to examine the levelized cost of energy (LCOEs) of off-grid renewable systems in comparison with their competing conventional energy systems. Sensitivity analyses are performed on a number of variables (such as discount rate, module cost, energy output, etc.) to discover the extent to which they affect the renewable energy systems' economics. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.). |
