IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v144y2021ics1364032121002744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Opportunities for household energy on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in line with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Zhuang, Minghao
  • Lu, Xi
  • Peng, Wei
  • Wang, Yanfen
  • Wang, Jianxiao
  • Nielsen, Chris P.
  • McElroy, Michael B.

Abstract

Approximately seven million population in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China, a global climate sensitive region, still rely primarily on yak dung for household cooking and heating. The treatment and combustion of yak dung result in a variety of negative impacts in terms of local alpine grassland degradation, indoor air pollution, public health risk, as well as global climate change. There is an urgent need to explore alternative pathway for affordable and clean energy as indicated in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. This perspective has analyzed the key challenges rooted in yak dung use on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region. Based on this, this perspective has further proposed a new complementary energy system to take advantage of locally available, clean and sustainable energy sources of wind and solar power, and have provided economic analyses. Meanwhile, this perspective has pointed out the potential barriers to promoting the new complementary energy system in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region due to traditional habits, economic factors and policies. Finally, strategies for transitioning from yak dung to the proposed alternative energy system is discussed at the end. Successful energy transition for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region offers an important option to achieving many other sustainable development goals related to climate change, economic development, and environment. The perspective is expected to shed light on the development of sustainable energy in other developing region or countries in the world to address multiple societal goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhuang, Minghao & Lu, Xi & Peng, Wei & Wang, Yanfen & Wang, Jianxiao & Nielsen, Chris P. & McElroy, Michael B., 2021. "Opportunities for household energy on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in line with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:144:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121002744
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.110982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121002744
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110982?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. Jinyue Yan & Ying Yang & Pietro Elia Campana & Jijiang He, 2019. "City-level analysis of subsidy-free solar photovoltaic electricity price, profits and grid parity in China," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 709-717, August.
    2. Xi Lu & Michael B. McElroy & Wei Peng & Shiyang Liu & Chris P. Nielsen & Haikun Wang, 2016. "Challenges faced by China compared with the US in developing wind power," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(6), pages 1-6, June.
    3. Fathima, A. Hina & Palanisamy, K., 2015. "Optimization in microgrids with hybrid energy systems – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 431-446.
    4. Zhuang, Minghao & Gongbuzeren, & Zhang, Jian & Li, Wenjun, 2019. "Community-based seasonal movement grazing maintains lower greenhouse gas emission intensity on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 155-160.
    5. Huiming Zhang & Kai Wu & Yueming Qiu & Gabriel Chan & Shouyang Wang & Dequn Zhou & Xianqiang Ren, 2020. "Solar photovoltaic interventions have reduced rural poverty in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2012. "Social and ecological effects of biomass utilization and the willingness to use clean energy in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet plateau," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 828-833.
    7. Ustun, Taha Selim & Ozansoy, Cagil & Zayegh, Aladin, 2011. "Recent developments in microgrids and example cases around the world—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4030-4041.
    8. Benjamin K. Sovacool & Steve Griffiths, 2020. "Culture and low-carbon energy transitions," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(9), pages 685-693, September.
    9. Jiang, Lu & Yu, Lu & Xue, Bing & Chen, Xingpeng & Mi, Zhifu, 2020. "Who is energy poor? Evidence from the least developed regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Moretti, M. & Djomo, S. Njakou & Azadi, H. & May, K. & De Vos, K. & Van Passel, S. & Witters, N., 2017. "A systematic review of environmental and economic impacts of smart grids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 888-898.
    11. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2011. "Status and future perspectives of energy consumption and its ecological impacts in the Qinghai-Tibet region," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 514-523, January.
    12. Wang, Qiang, 2009. "Prevention of Tibetan eco-environmental degradation caused by traditional use of biomass," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2562-2570, December.
    13. Reid Detchon & Richenda Van Leeuwen, 2014. "Policy: Bring sustainable energy to the developing world," Nature, Nature, vol. 508(7496), pages 309-311, April.
    14. Jiang, Lu & Xue, Bing & Xing, Ran & Chen, Xingpeng & Song, Lan & Wang, Yutao & Coffman, D’Maris & Mi, Zhifu, 2020. "Rural household energy consumption of farmers and herders in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    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. 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.
    2. Ye, Anqi & Guan, Bowen & Liu, Xiaohua & Zhang, Tao, 2023. "Using solar energy to achieve near-zero energy buildings in Tibetan Plateau," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).

    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. Wang, Menghan & Liu, Zhong & Xu, Aiyan & Yang, Dan, 2022. "Fuel choice for rural Tibetan households: Impacts of access to credit," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Ding, Wenguang & Xu, Luan & Ye, Weifeng, 2014. "A comparative study of bioenergy consumption and CO2 emissions in Tibetan region of China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 344-350.
    3. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Bahaj, AbuBakr S. & Xu, Kaipeng & Hao, Yan & Wang, Changbo, 2018. "Small hydropower development in Tibet: Insight from a survey in Nagqu Prefecture," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3032-3040.
    4. Cheng, Zhiming & Tani, Massimiliano & Wang, Haining, 2021. "Energy poverty and entrepreneurship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2012. "Social and ecological effects of biomass utilization and the willingness to use clean energy in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet plateau," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 828-833.
    6. Li, Jiaxin & Peng, Jiachao & Shuai, Chuanmin & Wang, Zihan & Huang, Fubin & Khayyam, Muhammad, 2022. "Does the solar PV program enhance the social empowerment of China's rural poor?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    7. Liu, Laibao & Wang, Zheng & Wang, Yang & Wang, Jun & Chang, Rui & He, Gang & Tang, Wenjun & Gao, Ziqi & Li, Jiangtao & Liu, Changyi & Zhao, Lin & Qin, Dahe & Li, Shuangcheng, 2020. "Optimizing wind/solar combinations at finer scales to mitigate renewable energy variability in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Yin, Hui & Zhou, Kaile, 2022. "Performance evaluation of China's photovoltaic poverty alleviation project using machine learning and satellite images," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Unamuno, Eneko & Barrena, Jon Andoni, 2015. "Hybrid ac/dc microgrids—Part I: Review and classification of topologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1251-1259.
    10. He, Jing & Ren, Fu & Weibel, Robert & Fu, Cheng, 2023. "The effect of large scale photovoltaic-based projects on poverty reduction: Empirical evidence from China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    11. Liao, Chuan & Fei, Ding & Huang, Qingxu & Jiang, Lu & Shi, Peijun, 2021. "Targeted poverty alleviation through photovoltaic-based intervention: Rhetoric and reality in Qinghai, China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Song, Chenchen & Guo, Zhiling & Liu, Zhengguang & Hongyun, Zhang & Liu, Ran & Zhang, Haoran, 2024. "Application of photovoltaics on different types of land in China: Opportunities, status and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    13. Daniel Akinyele & Juri Belikov & Yoash Levron, 2018. "Challenges of Microgrids in Remote Communities: A STEEP Model Application," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-35, February.
    14. Chong, Shijia & Wu, Jing & Chang, I-Shin, 2024. "Cost accounting and economic competitiveness evaluation of photovoltaic power generation in China —— based on the system levelized cost of electricity," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    15. Unamuno, Eneko & Barrena, Jon Andoni, 2015. "Hybrid ac/dc microgrids—Part II: Review and classification of control strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1123-1134.
    16. Jiang, Lu & Xue, Bing & Ma, Zhixiao & Yu, Lu & Huang, Beijia & Chen, Xingpeng, 2020. "A life-cycle based co-benefits analysis of biomass pellet production in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 445-452.
    17. Ma, Rufei & Deng, Liqian & Ji, Qiang & Zhai, Pengxiang, 2022. "Environmental regulations, clean energy access, and household energy poverty: Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    18. Xueyan Zhao & Haili Zhao & Lu Jiang & Chenyu Lu & Bing Xue, 2018. "The Influence of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategies on Household Energy Consumption in the Eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-12, May.
    19. Libo Zhang & Qian Du & Dequn Zhou, 2021. "Grid Parity Analysis of China’s Centralized Photovoltaic Generation under Multiple Uncertainties," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Emrani-Rahaghi, Pouria & Hashemi-Dezaki, Hamed & Ketabi, Abbas, 2023. "Efficient voltage control of low voltage distribution networks using integrated optimized energy management of networked residential multi-energy microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).

    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:rensus:v:144:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121002744. 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.