Green Rural Roots
As the Chinese Council member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) launched by the UN Foundation in 2010, Wang Shi promoted the implementation of clean cookstove projects in China. In 2017, C Team’s project team facilitated the adoption of clean cookstoves by 500 pilot households across eight natural villages in Shaanxi, addressing air pollution caused by inefficient stove structures and incomplete combustion. In 2018, building on the clean cookstove initiative, C Team implemented the “Green Rural Roots” program, focusing on rural clean energy and community development to make Chinese villages greener and more livable.
To better respond to local villagers’ needs for livelihood development and community improvement, with support from the Vanke Foundation and the UNDP Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme, C Team established partnerships with Shaanxi Gender Development Solution (SGDS) and the Blue Map Clean Air Alliance (BCAA). Using a community-led development model, the “Green Rural Roots” program was jointly implemented through participatory community training and micro-grant projects to support livelihood development in Nangoumen Village. Combined with environmental advocacy activities by Yan’an University’s “San Nong” student association, the program helped raise villagers’ environmental and health awareness, improve village conditions, and seek additional technological innovations and resources to enhance the clean cookstove project, forming a comprehensive application case.
The project implemented three clean heating technology pathways: 10 households adopted biomass stoves with biomass pellets, 5 households used photovoltaic power generation with electric heating, and 2 households employed solar thermal heating with passive house technology. Additionally, 5 coal-heating households served as control cases.
The project team conducted a systematic assessment of the environmental benefits of these demonstration technologies, finding that clean heating technologies not only improved air quality but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Based on data collected from October 2019 to July 2020, the project’s 10 biomass stove installations and 5 photovoltaic + water heatingç‚• systems achieved annual reductions of over 2,827.5 kg of pollutants and 96.2 tons of greenhouse gases. From mid-March to mid-July 2020, the systems generated 8,416 kWh of clean electricity, providing villagers with an additional income of 3,198 RMB. These clean heating technologies replaced coal use, reduced health and poisoning risks from carbon monoxide, and improved quality of life.
During implementation, the project team identified the feasibility of compacting local biomass materials such as straw and waste branches into fuel pellets. Trial production of biomass formed fuel was incorporated into the pilot project, and through multiple ratio experiments, the team successfully produced biomass pellets superior to market alternatives. This verified the feasibility of local biomass fuel production and explored a viable solution to address pollution from straw burning in the region.
