Approaches to using renewable energy in rural areas of China

The Chinese Government has made strong policy commitments to expand the use of renewable energy systems in rural electrification as a means of achieving sustainable development. International experience has shown that there are technical, social, cultural, institutional and economic barriers to the deployment of renewable energy systems and, thus, to their ability to contribute to the development goals of the community over the long term. This paper aims to identify promising approaches for,overcoming these barriers in the context of rural China. It concludes (a) a literature review of key renewable energy projects in rural China(1), (b) a comparison of the lessons learnt from renewable energy rural electrification programs in other countries, (c) an assessment of the contribution of these projects to our understanding of renewable energy projects in rural areas.