IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v69y2014icp180-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of renewable energy on gender in rural communities of north-west China

Author

Listed:
  • Ding, Wenguang
  • Wang, Lijun
  • Chen, Baoyu
  • Xu, Luan
  • Li, Haoxu

Abstract

This investigation compares the traditional energy structure with improved energy structures, and evaluates the impact of renewable energy on gender relations in rural communities in north-west China. The traditional energy consumption structure in rural communities in north-west China was based on biomass and coal. However, the improved energy consumption structures consist of renewable energy based on solar energy cookers, biogas digesters and energy saving stoves. Compared with traditional biomass-based energy consumption, renewable energy could significantly improve energy use efficiency and alter women's labour intensity, health status, living standards and even men's share of some cooking tasks. The field investigation data revealed that: women are free from having to collect firewood after integration use of renewable energy including biogas digesters, energy saving biomass stoves and solar energy cookers; the frequency of firewood collection, firewood collection quantity, time spent in firewood collection and human energy consumption of women have greatly decreased when traditional energy consumption structures are improved; using biogas can daily save 50% of cooking time for women; 91% of women use surplus funds from energy saving to buy clothes and cosmetics products; 3.1% of them enjoy travelling; and also use of clean energy devices can further reduce the risk of women exposed to indoor smoke pollution, and hence prevent women from possibly getting respiratory diseases. Therefore, it can be concluded that: gender is an important aspect of energy, which has previously been ignored by many researchers; gender does matter in the area of access to, ways of use, opportunities and control over energy; energy and women are linked in many diverse ways; technology change can drive cultural change; appropriate policies are needed to encourage technology up-take.

Suggested Citation

  • Ding, Wenguang & Wang, Lijun & Chen, Baoyu & Xu, Luan & Li, Haoxu, 2014. "Impacts of renewable energy on gender in rural communities of north-west China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 180-189.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:69:y:2014:i:c:p:180-189
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.03.027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114001724
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2014.03.027?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parikh, Jyoti, 2011. "Hardships and health impacts on women due to traditional cooking fuels: A case study of Himachal Pradesh, India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7587-7594.
    2. Katuwal, Hari & Bohara, Alok K., 2009. "Biogas: A promising renewable technology and its impact on rural households in Nepal," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2668-2674, December.
    3. Zhang, Sufang & Fu, Liwen, 2011. "Exploring an integrated approach to utilize indigenous renewable energy to improve energy self-sufficiency and emission reduction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 827-832, January.
    4. Kautto, N. & Peck, P., 2012. "Regional biomass planning – Helping to realise national renewable energy goals?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 23-30.
    5. Wickramasinghe, Anoja, 2011. "Energy access and transition to cleaner cooking fuels and technologies in Sri Lanka: Issues and policy limitations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7567-7574.
    6. Yao, Chunsheng & Chen, Chongying & Li, Ming, 2012. "Analysis of rural residential energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 445-450.
    7. Balachandra, P., 2011. "Dynamics of rural energy access in India: An assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 5556-5567.
    8. K.C., Surendra & Khanal, Samir Kumar & Shrestha, Prachand & Lamsal, Buddhi, 2011. "Current status of renewable energy in Nepal: Opportunities and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4107-4117.
    9. Foell, Wesley & Pachauri, Shonali & Spreng, Daniel & Zerriffi, Hisham, 2011. "Household cooking fuels and technologies in developing economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7487-7496.
    10. Kaygusuz, K., 2011. "Energy services and energy poverty for sustainable rural development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 936-947, February.
    11. Undp, 2011. "HDR 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All," Human Development Report (1990 to present), Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), number hdr2011, September.
    12. Akkemik, K. Ali & Göksal, Koray & Li, Jia, 2012. "Energy consumption and income in Chinese provinces: Heterogeneous panel causality analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 445-454.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Wei & Yang, Jun & Sheng, Pengfei & Li, Xuesong & Wang, Xingwu, 2014. "Potential cooperation in renewable energy between China and the United States of America," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 403-409.
    2. Ding, Wenguang & He, Li & Zewudie, Dinka & Zhang, Huilin & Zafar, Tanjia Binte & Liu, Xinde, 2019. "Gender and renewable energy study in Tibetan pastoral areas of China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 901-913.
    3. Mang-Benza, Carelle & Jodoin, Laurent & Onibon Doubogan, Yvette & Gaye, Ibrahima & Kola, Edinam, 2023. "Making energy justice work for women in rural sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative diagnostic from Benin, Senegal, and Togo," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Wenheng Wu & Hongying Zhu & Yinghao Qu & Kaiying Xu, 2017. "Regional Disparities in Emissions of Rural Household Energy Consumption: A Case Study of Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Acheampong, Alex O. & Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Amankwaa, Afua & Dzator, Janet, 2024. "Energy poverty and gender equality in education: Unpacking the transmission channels," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    6. Yang, Yafei & Cui, Qi & Wang, Hui, 2024. "Assessing the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of China's power sector changes in 2010–2020," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    7. Ana María González & Harrison Sandoval & Pilar Acosta & Felipe Henao, 2016. "On the Acceptance and Sustainability of Renewable Energy Projects—A Systems Thinking Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-21, November.
    8. Krishnapriya, P.P. & Chandrasekaran, Maya & Jeuland, Marc & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2021. "Do improved cookstoves save time and improve gender outcomes? Evidence from six developing countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Fanghua Li & Abbas Ali Chandio & Yinying Duan & Dungang Zang, 2022. "How Does Clean Energy Consumption Affect Women’s Health: New Insights from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-16, June.
    10. Yohannes Biru Aemro & Pedro Moura & Aníbal T. Almeida, 2021. "Inefficient cooking systems a challenge for sustainable development: a case of rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 14697-14721, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frempong, Raymond Boadi & Orkoh, Emmanuel & Kofinti, Raymond Elikplim, 2021. "Household's use of cooking gas and Children's learning outcomes in rural Ghana," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Wang, Chengchao & Yang, Yusheng & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2012. "Rural household livelihood change, fuelwood substitution, and hilly ecosystem restoration: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2475-2482.
    3. Malla, Sunil & Timilsina, Govinda R, 2014. "Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6903, The World Bank.
    4. Cheng, Shikun & Li, Zifu & Mang, Heinz-Peter & Neupane, Kalidas & Wauthelet, Marc & Huba, Elisabeth-Maria, 2014. "Application of fault tree approach for technical assessment of small-sized biogas systems in Nepal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1372-1381.
    5. Vanschoenwinkel, Janka & Lizin, Sebastien & Swinnen, Gilbert & Azadi, Hossein & Van Passel, Steven, 2014. "Solar cooking in Senegalese villages: An application of best–worst scaling," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 447-458.
    6. Harry Hoffmann & Götz Uckert & Constance Rybak & Frieder Graef & Klas Sander & Stefan Sieber, 2018. "Efficiency scenarios of charcoal production and consumption – a village case study from Western Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 925-938, August.
    7. Jingwen Wu & Bingdong Hou & Ruoyu Ke & Yun-Fei Du & Ce Wang & Xiangzheng Li & Jiawei Cai & Tianqi Chen & Meixuan Teng & Jin Liu & Jin-Wei Wang & Hua Liao, 2018. "Residential fuel choice in the rural: A field research on two counties of North China," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 109, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    8. Yasar, Abdullah & Nazir, Saba & Tabinda, Amtul Bari & Nazar, Masooma & Rasheed, Rizwan & Afzaal, Muhammad, 2017. "Socio-economic, health and agriculture benefits of rural household biogas plants in energy scarce developing countries: A case study from Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 19-25.
    9. Ana María González & Harrison Sandoval & Pilar Acosta & Felipe Henao, 2016. "On the Acceptance and Sustainability of Renewable Energy Projects—A Systems Thinking Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-21, November.
    10. 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 & Hua Liao, 2017. "Residential Fuel Choice in Rural Areas: Field Research of Two Counties of North China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Gurung, Anup & Kumar Ghimeray, Amal & Hassan, Sedky H.A., 2012. "The prospects of renewable energy technologies for rural electrification: A review from Nepal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 374-380.
    12. Han, Hongyun & Wu, Shu, 2018. "Rural residential energy transition and energy consumption intensity in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 523-534.
    13. Malla, Sunil, 2013. "Household energy consumption patterns and its environmental implications: Assessment of energy access and poverty in Nepal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 990-1002.
    14. Ramchandra Bhandari & Surendra Pandit, 2018. "Electricity as a Cooking Means in Nepal—A Modelling Tool Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    15. Gurung, Anup & Karki, Rahul & Cho, Ju Sik & Park, Kyung Won & Oh, Sang-Eun, 2013. "Roles of renewable energy technologies in improving the rural energy situation in Nepal: Gaps and opportunities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1104-1109.
    16. Ting Meng & Wojciech J. Florkowski & Daniel B. Sarpong & Manjeet Chinnan & Anna V. A. Resurreccion, 2021. "Cooking Fuel Usage in Sub-Saharan Urban Households," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, July.
    17. Rupf, Gloria V. & Bahri, Parisa A. & de Boer, Karne & McHenry, Mark P., 2015. "Barriers and opportunities of biogas dissemination in Sub-Saharan Africa and lessons learned from Rwanda, Tanzania, China, India, and Nepal," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 468-476.
    18. Banerjee, Manjushree & Prasad, Rakesh & Rehman, Ibrahim H & Gill, Bigsna, 2016. "Induction stoves as an option for clean cooking in rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 159-167.
    19. Gurung, Anup & Oh, Sang Eun, 2013. "Conversion of traditional biomass into modern bioenergy systems: A review in context to improve the energy situation in Nepal," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 206-213.
    20. Chicombo, Adélia Filosa Francisco & Musango, Josephine Kaviti, 2024. "Urban households energy transition pathways: A gendered perspective regarding Mozambique," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 190(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:69:y:2014:i:c:p:180-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.