UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 27, Page 3
April 11, 1996
Project report; Wind power generates interest in rural China

     Many people in the U.S. may still believe that sun-and-wind-
generated electricity is impractical, but in rural China, some women
consider a wind turbine a prerequisite for marriage.
     While visiting the University's Center for Energy and
Environmental Policy (CEEP) March 11-13, Lin Li, director of the Inner
Mongolia New Energy Office, explained that sun-and-wind-powered
generators are revolutionizing the remote areas of her country by
bringing people electricity for the first time in their lives.
     "These devices are so sought after that some women will not marry
unless their prospective grooms have the price of a wind turbine," Lin
said, through an interpreter.
     Lin was one of a five-member delegation, led by Chinese Academy
of Sciences representative Professor Li Xiuguo, in the U.S. for
meetings with CEEP director John Byrne, doctoral research assistant Bo
Shen, representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy and a research
team with the World Bank.
     The Chinese delegation was here to discuss the results of a joint
Chinese Academy of Sciences and CEEP analysis of Inner Mongolia's 38-
year-old, renewable energy program.
     Li said the analysis proves China is on the right track. "They
(CEEP) has done an excellent job, the results strongly support this
project and now hundreds of demonstration projects are planned to
allow herders to see for themselves," he said, through an interpreter.
     In 1994, CEEP received a grant from the U.S. DOE to work with the
government of China to determine how solar and wind electricity-
generating devices could best be incorporated into that nation's
household and community energy mix.
     Inner Mongolia is the first phase of that analysis. According to
the CEEP study, the region has a land mass of more than 463,000 square
miles, nearly twice the size of Texas.
     Because most of the area is flat grassland, there is little to
interfere with the intensity of the wind or the sun. Its 22 million
people, mostly farmers and herders with an average yearly income of
$150, are sparsely scattered throughout. It is one of the poorest
regions of China and approximately 300,000 households are still
without electricity.
     CEEP's figures show that in the 38 years that the rural
electrification program has existed, 110,000 wind turbines and 3,800
solar panel systems have been installed bringing electricity to
100,000 households. At that rate, it will take 114 years to electrify
the rest of the region.
     Byrne said that CEEP's analysis will show how that pace can be
accelerated and how the program can be made more efficient and
effective.
     In the next phase, the Inner Mongolia provincial government will
use renewable energy systems developed by CEEP and the China team to
launch an aggressive solar and wind energy campaign in 48 districts
with more than 100,000 people. The goal, Byrne said, is to bring
lighting, refrigeration, information and health care to these farmers
and herders by the year 2000. Without renewables, that goal would be
unachievable since the government estimates running wire to these
remote areas won't be cost effective for another 20 years, he
explained.
     If the efforts of CAS, CEEP and DOE are successful, China could
more quickly become a market for solar and wind electricity generators
produced in the U.S. and China, Byrne said.
     He said that creating a large market for these devices will make
them less costly to produce, thus more affordable to consumers who now
pay relatively low prices for electricity from generators powered by
fossil fuels.
                                                     -Barbara Garrison