5.3. Fuel-efficient stoves
Policies to widely promote and disseminate improved rural
energy technology have been undertaken in China since the early
1980s [39]. The most successful components of these policies
are the extensive dissemination of fuel-saving improved biomass
stoves, mini hydropower plants, and biogas digesters. China’s dissemination
of improved biomass stoves (mainly designed for wood
or crop residues) remains the most successful such program worldwide
with estimates of over 99 million installed between 1983 and
1988 [39]. The dissemination of fuel-saving improved stoves has
been reported to be the most cost-effective measure in rural energy
conservation undertaken in China [39]. Improved biomass stoves
are intermediate steps along the “energy ladder” toward eventual
provision of clean liquid and gaseous fuels and expanded use of
electricity for all households. Although widespread adoption of
clean fuels is likely to be decades in the future, given the large variety
of economic and agro-climatic conditions in China, there are
undoubtedly many communities where policies to promote movement
to cleaner fuels are more cost-effective today than improved
biomass stoves [40].