Clean Energy Heating

  The village of Hongchang, Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province, is a typical rural area in northern China. Unlike centralized heating in cities, buying loose coal and burning it in smoke-filled fires has always been the main way local residents keep warm during winter. In the past, families in northern rural areas would burn about 5.5 tons of loose coal in one winter. This method of heating is inefficient and polluting, and it also poses safety risks such as carbon monoxide poisoning.

  Using electric heating is not only convenient but also more affordable. It saves over 300 yuan annually compared to heating with coal. In Zhuanghe City, State Grid Zhuanghe Power Company has completed the installation and connection of electric heating meters for over 1130 households this year, allowing more and more rural families to use clean energy for heating.

  Say goodbye to soot; clean heating is the new choice for Chinese farmers In recent years, China has promoted projects such as "coal-to-electricity" and "coal-to-gas" by providing farmers with clean heating equipment and electric heating, and subsidizing energy prices to replace coal heating. Liaoning Province provides subsidies for new users of "coal-to-gas" and "coal-to-electricity" conversion, such as 1 yuan per cubic meter of natural gas and 0.1 yuan per kilowatt hour of electricity; Qinghai Province also funds clean heating source transformations in multiple regions by distributing clean heating subsidy funds to promote heat-storage electric boilers in rural areas for cleaner heating conversions.

  In 2020, China proposed the "Double Carbon" goal. Nuclear energy heating, biomass clean heating, and air source heat pumps are a few new technologies that are gradually maturing and entering rural areas to achieve lower carbon emissions.

  Under the promotion of policies and technology, the clean energy heating rate in northern rural China is increasing year by year More than 4,000 households have been completed with clean heating renovations in northern rural areas. By the end of 2024, the clean heating rate in northern regions will reach 83%, an increase of nearly 20 percentage points compared to 2020.

  With less coal being used, the most noticeable effect is that the sky has turned blue. According to data, in 2024, PM2.5 concentrations in national prefecture-level cities and above will drop to 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 16.3% compared to 2020. The proportion of excellent days will reach 87.2%, an increase of 2.4 percentage points compared to 2020.

  The current improvement in clean heating rates in northern China has not only improved air quality but also directly enhanced the quality of life and health of billions of urban and rural residents.

 From: www.cwestc.com

 Editor: Xu Xi