Residential Fuel Choice in Rural Areas: Field Research of Two Counties of North China

Jingwen Wu, Bingdong Hou, Ruo-Yu Ke, Yun-Fei Du, Ce Wang (), Xiangzheng Li, Jiawei Cai, Tianqi Chen, Meixuan Teng, Jin Liu, Jin-Wei Wang and Hua Liao ()
Additional contact information
Jingwen Wu: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Bingdong Hou: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Ruo-Yu Ke: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Yun-Fei Du: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Xiangzheng Li: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Jiawei Cai: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Tianqi Chen: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Meixuan Teng: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Jin Liu: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Jin-Wei Wang: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Solid fuels are still widely used in rural China though the living standard has improved greatly. Energy poverty is an obvious indicator of poverty, which has serious effects on economic development, environment, and health. In this paper, we conducted a detailed analysis on fuel choice and usage behavior of different end-use activities in rural residential energy consumption. Using 717 household observations from micro-survey data in two counties of Shandong and Hebei province in 2016, we find that biomass is the dominant fuel used for cooking among all energy sources despite of obvious decreasing trend in recent years, accounting for 44%. Clean energy used to cook increased markedly with a proportion of nearly 50%. Solar energy is an ordinary fuel used for water heating except for biomass. Almost 90% of households rely on coal for space heating in winter, and one-third of households have space heating for fewer than two months. Ownership of home appliances for basic needs is higher than that for hedonistic needs, and usage behaviors of some appliances are economical. Fuel accessibility of commercial energy have improved noticeably in rural areas, and the high proportion usage of biomass is affected by family income, usage habits, local resources, environmental recognition, education, and age. Since the negative effects of using solid fuels, it is urgent to cleanse biomass, develop new energy, and improve residents’ cognition about the consequences of using solid fuels.

Keywords: rural households; fuel choice; end-use; usage behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/609/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/609/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:4:p:609-:d:95839

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().