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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

12 (2008) 1667–1680
www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Changing of energy consumption patterns from

rural households to urban households in China:
An example from Shaanxi Province, China
Jing Caia,b, Zhigang Jianga,b,
a
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
b
Centre for Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology Institute of Zoology, and Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology
and Conservation Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Received 31 January 2007; received in revised form 31 January 2007; accepted 19 March 2007

Abstract

We chose five study sites, from a traditional village, the Laoxiancheng Village, in remote
mountainous areas to towns, the Houzhenzi Xiang Township, the Mazhao Town and the Zhouzhi
County Town, as well as in a modern city, Xi’an in the Shaanxi Province of China, to study
differences in energy consumption between rural and urban households and to assess its conservation
implications. This study confirmed the prediction of the ‘ladder of fuel preferences’ theory. Energies
used in urban households are more convenient, cleaner, and more efficient than those used in rural
areas, where biomass and coal are common fuel. The amount of energy used for entertainment and
electric appliances is greater in urban areas, whereas the quantity used for cooking is larger in rural
districts. People in Laoxiancheng Village completely depended on fuelwood for cooking and heating.
In the Houzhenzi Xiang Township, 16.7% household use coal ball, and 23.3% use LPG. Electricity
and fuelwood were used in each household. In the Mazhao Town, 96.7% households used crop
residue, 90% used coal, about 30% use LPG, and every household used electricity. In the Zhouzhi
County Town, of the entire sampled household, 92.7% used coal, 92.7% of household used LPG and
37.5% household used gasoline. In the Xi’an city, of the entire sampled household, 32.8% household
used natural gas, 67.2% used LPG; about 34.9% household used gasoline, 48.6% household used
electricity and 51.4% used natural gas for heating in winter. In the five study areas, the ratio of each
energy source consumed per household was also different. In the Houzhenzi Xiang Township, coal
took 6.2%, LPG 1.4%, electricity 1.4% and fuelwood 91%. In the Mazhao Town, crop residue took
31.4%, coal 62.2%, LPG 2.2%, and electricity 4.2%. In the Zhouzhi County Town, the importance

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 64807268; fax: +86 10 64807268.

E-mail address: [email protected] (Z. Jiang).

1364-0321/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.rser.2007.03.002
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of energy ranked as follows: coal 75.8%, LPG 12.8%, electricity 5%, and gasoline 6.4%. In the Xi’an
city, LPG took 17.6%, natural gas 27.3%, gasoline 16.9%, and electricity 38.2%. Comparing total
annual consumption, households in villages used more energy compared to the households in cities.
The mean of total annual energy consumption was 79.57, 63.07, 37.75, 42.53, and 29.73 GJ in the
Laoxiancheng Village, Houzhenzi Xiang Township, Mazhao Town, Zhouzhi County Town, and
Xi’an City, respectively. We should improve the efficiency of fuel burning and introduce cleaner
energy resources, such as biogas and hydropower in villages. For the households in rural areas, it is
necessary to substitute coal with other cleaner energy resources and it is more important and urgent
for urban households to save energy, considering large population in cities.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Biomass; Chemical energy; Village; Town; Countryside; City

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1668
2. Study area and method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669
2.1. Study area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669
2.2. Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1671
3. Result. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672
3.1. Patterns of energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672
3.2. Total energy consumption and correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1673
3.3. Spectrum of energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674
4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674
4.1. Choice and consumption of energy source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674
4.2. Annual energy consumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1676
4.3. Spectrum of energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677
5. Conservation implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677
6. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1678
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1678
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1679

1. Introduction

Energy consumption has long been seen as a critical indicator of socio-economic

activity, national economic growth and human impact on the environment [1]. With
increasing world population and rising living standards, the demand for energy in the
world is continually growing. Energy consumed by households represents a considerable
percentage of the energy consumed in the world [2]. Patterns of domestic energy use are
closely linked to agro-climatic [3], socio-economic conditions [3–8], such as the level of the
user’s living standards [8–11], family size, education, farm area per rural household and
forest area per household [12]. It is also influenced by government policy, which affects the
inequity in fuel and equipment availability among different income groups [13].
Urbanization is a social process of global proportions [14], which is defined in terms of
concentrated human presence in residential and industrial settings and their associated
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effects [15]. Transformations of economic structure, location and lifestyles have resulted in
rapid urbanization and growing demand for modern fuels [7,16]. In some develop-
ing countries, the rapid pace of urbanization generates fundamental changes in energy
use [17,18].
Since the world energy crisis in 1970s, researches on energy consumption in the rural,
domestic sectors of developing countries have gained much attention, such as those in
India and South Africa, because the energy consumptions in the rural and domestic sectors
directly affect sustainable and balanced economic development [19]. Household energy
consumption in rural areas also composes an important part of China’s national energy
consumption [20]. Researches show the consumptions of electricity and liquidized
petroleum gas (LPG) are increasing while that of straw and coal are declining in China,
though effective heat use has increased slightly [12,20,21].
Researches on energy consumption in the domestic sector are focused on either rural or
urban areas, little is known about the changes in energy consumption patterns from
villages to cities. In China, the pace of urbanization is accelerating. The population in
towns has more than doubled since the economic reform.1 Thus, it is necessary to study
household energy consumption patterns in both countryside and city and shed lights on
the energy consumption changes during urbanization. Our aims are to provide quantitative
information about domestic energy use, from villages to large cities, and to assess major
characteristics of household energy consumption.

2. Study area and method

2.1. Study area

The administrative hierarchical system of China is composed (in a descending order) of

the central government, provinces, cities, counties, towns, Xiangs (or townships), and
villages. Thus the size (in terms of population and area) and degree of urbanization
decrease in the same congruent order. We carried out this study in the Shaanxi Province,
central China, where we sampled five sites: the Laoxiancheng Village, the Houzhenzi Xiang
Township, the Mazhao Town, the Zhouzhi County Town, and the Xi’an City (the capital
of the Shaanxi Province) (Fig. 1).
Laoxiancheng Village is a small village located in the center of the Qinling Mountains
with an average altitude of 1700 m. ‘‘Laoxiancheng’’ means ‘‘old country town’’
in Chinese. It was the old country town of the Foping Country. Due to gangster
rebellions, the country government moved and people fled from the area; the old country
town was abandoned [22]. Now, only 153 people of 35 households live there and it is a
village under the administration of Houzhenzi Xiang, Zhouzhi Country. Laoxiancheng
Village was isolated from the outside world until a countryside road from Houzhenzi
Xiang Township was constructed in 1996. However, the lifestyle in the Laoxiancheng
Village has changed little since then. Local people still depend on wood as fuel and
virtually no commercial energy resource is used. Climate in Laoxiancheng area belongs
to the semi-temperate humid zone; summers are short and cool whereas winters are long
and cold.
1
The data is from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
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0 20 Kilometers Xi'an
Zhouzhi
Laoxiancheng
Nature Reserve
Mazhao Mt. Qinling

Houzhenzi
China
Shaanxi
Laoxianchenge

Fig. 1. The location of the Laoxiancheng Village, the Houzhenzi Xiang Township, the Mazhao Town, the
Zhouzhi County Town and the Xi’an City in China. Note the shaded area indicates the range of Qinling
Mountain.

Houzhenzi Xiang Township is a small town in the Zhouzhi County Town, average
altitude of 1250 m, located 22 km away from the Laoxiancheng Village. There are 62
households with 312 people living in this countryside township and it is accessible by bus.
Its climate is similar to that of Laoxiancheng Village with average annual temperatures of
8.4 1C. The average daily temperature is 20.4 1C in July and 4.2 1C in January.
Laoxiancheng Village and Houzhenzi Xiang Township are located in the mountains and
surrounded by the forests of nearby nature reserves.
Mazhao Town is a large town in the Zhouzhi Country with an average altitude of about
600 m. National Highway No. 108 transects the town. It is about 80 km away from the
Houzhenzi Xiang Township and only 10 km away from the Zhouzhi County Town. There
are 20,000 people living in the town and most of them are farmers. Average annual
temperature in Mazhao is 13.2 1C.
Zhouzhi County Town is under the administration of Xi’an City. Zhouzhi County Town
lies 78 km east of Xi’an city and has an average altitude of 434 m. Its average annual
temperature is 13.2 1C. The urban area of Zhouzhi County Town is 6 km2 and
accommodates 60,000 people, most of the residents have full-time jobs.
Xi’an City is located north of the Qinling Mountains, average altitude 400 m, average
annual temperature 15 1C. Xi’an was the national capital of 12 dynasties from Western
Zhou (1046–771 B.C.) to Tang (618–907 A.D.) in history. The city covers an area of
203 km2 and hosts a population of 5.1 million.
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2.2. Method

We surveyed the family sizes and economic statuses, as well as the types and quantities
of energy they consumed from July 2003 to October 2004 (Table 1). The efficiencies of the
devices used in each household are given in Table 2.
We collected the data using three methods: pre-designed questionnaire, participant
observation and participatory rural appraisal (PRA, [26]). Participant observation was
conducted in the Laoxiancheng Village where we stayed with local families to record the
daily fuelwood consumption for 7 days each season. PRA was conducted in the Houzhenzi
Xiang Township and the Mazhao Town; pre-designed questionnaires were used to survey
the Zhouzhi County Town and Xi’an City.
We confronted some difficulties in the study. First, some residents do not have records.
In such cases, family members estimated the data. Second, in Zhouzhi County Town and
in Xi’an City, electricity is also used for cooking, such as electric cooker; however, it was
difficult to divide the usage of electricity and the parts used for cooking were very small
according to the words of the sampled household in Xi’an city; we only recorded the total
electricity consumption. Third, most district heating systems do not have meters to record
heat flow in each home. In such cases we referred to the ‘‘Energy Conservation Design
Standard for Heating New Residential Buildings’’ [27] to estimate the amount of natural
gas used in heating in Xi’an City.
SPSS 13.0 was used to analyze the data. One-way AVONA was used to test the
difference of total energy consumption in the five study sites. Kruskal–Wallis H and

Table 1
Family size, income and the energy sources of households in the five study areas (Mean7SE)

Location Family Annual income Energy sources N

size per household
(Yuan, RMB)

Laoxiancheng Village 4.137.30a 71307994.66a Fuelwood 23

Houzhenzi Xiang 4.337.24a 5493.337535.88a Fuelwood; coal; LPG; electricity 30
Township
Mazhao Town 4.377.23a 8666.6771666.67a Crop straw; coal; LPG; electricity 30
Zhouzhi County Town 3.667.12b 14919.5571242.03b Coal; LPG; gasoline; electricity 96
Xi’an City 2.737.04c 53629.5572716.83c LPG; gasoline; electricity 494

Means with the same superscript letters in the same column are not significantly different (Kruskal–Wallis H and
Mann–Whitney U).

Table 2
The efficiencies of the devises used in each household

Energy Device Efficiency (%) Source

Biomass Traditional stove 10–20 [23]

Coal ball Traditional stove 26.74 [23]
Gas Cooker 55 [24]
Electricity Appliance 470 [25]
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Mann–Whitney U were used to test the differences of household characters and energy
consumption because we could not transfer data into normally distributed data.
Spearman’s correlation was used to test the correlation between economic status,
household size and consumption of biomass and commercial energy.

3. Result

3.1. Patterns of energy consumption

Energy sources used by each household were different in the five study areas (Table 3).
The energy consumption per household in the five study sites is shown in Table 4. The total
energy consumption per household per year was divided into three groups: Laoxiancheng
Village and Houzhenzi Xiang Township, Mazhao Town and Zhouzhi County Town, the
Xi’an City (Fig. 2, Table 5).

Table 3
Energy sources used by households in the study sites

Location Fuelwood Crop Coal LPG Gasoline Natural Electricity

(%) residue (%) (%) (%) (%) gas (%) (%)

Laoxiancheng Village 100 0 0 0 0 0 0

Houzhenzi Xiang 100 0 16.7 23.3 0 0 100
Township
Mazhao Town 0 96.7 90 30 0 0 100
Zhouzhi County Town 0 0 92.7 92.7 37.5 0 100
Xi’an City 0 0 0 67.2 34.9 32.8 100

Table 4
Each energy consumption (GJ/household yr) and its percentage of the total consumption in the five study areas
(Mean7SE)

Energy Laoxiancheng Village Houzhenzi Xiang Mazhao Town Zhouzhi County Xi’an City
source Township Town

Energy % Energy % Energy % Energy % Energy %

consumed consumed consumed consumed consumed

Fuelwood 79.5774.33a 100 57.5175.24b 91 0 0 0 0 0 0

Crop 0 0 0 0 9.1671.25 31.4 0 0 0 0
residue
Coal 0 0 18.407.98a 6.2 20.5472.20b 62.2 34.1672.07c 75.8 0 0
LPG 0 0 .787.30a 1.4 .737.23a 2.2 3.927.26b 12.8 2.777.13c 17.6
Natural 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10.677.82 27.3
gas
Gasoline 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.947.79a 6.4 7.907.74b 16.9
Electricity 0 0 .797.15a 1.4 1.337.28b 4.2 1.517.09c 5 8.397.29d 38.2

 Conversion factors are given in Table 5.

 Means with the same superscript letters in the same row are not significantly different (Kruskal–Wallis H and
Mann–Whitney U).
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90
Total energy consumption per household
a
80

70 a
per year (GJ)

60

50
b
40
b c
30

20

10

0
Laoxiancheng Houzhenzi Mazhao Town Zhouzhi County Xi'an City
Village Xiang Township Township

Fig. 2. Total annual energy consumed per household (GJ) in the Laoxiancheng Village, the Houzhenzi Xiang
Township, the Mazhao Town, the Zhouzhi County Town and the Xi’an City (energy conversion standards are
given in Table 5). There was significant difference in the total energy consumption (LSD, F ¼ 36.108, po.01;
ANOVA), the bars labeled with different letters indicating significant difference.

Table 5
Energy conversion factors

Energy type Unit 107 J

Fuelwood kg 1.86
Crop residue kg 1.4
Coal-ball kg 3.0
LPG One bottle (15 kg) 75
Natural gas Cubic meter .00357
Gasoline Liter 3.4
Electricity kWh .36

3.2. Total energy consumption and correlations

Correlations between family size and energy consumption per household were signi-
ficant. The correlations between family income and energy consumption were not significant
in each study site except the Laoxiancheng Village (Table 6), but the correlation
between family income and biomass consumption of the total sampled households
was significant (Spearman’s correlation, R ¼ .513; po.01; Fig. 3(a)), and the correlation
between family income and commercial energy consumption of the total sampled house-
holds was also significant (Spearman’s correlation, R ¼ .110; po.01; Fig. 3(b)).
Although the model formulas given in Fig. 3 did not simulate well, they still could reflect
the affluences of family income to the biomass and commercial energy consumption in
households.
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Table 6
Correlations between family size, family income and biomass energy, commercial energy consumption

Parameter Laoxiancheng Houzhenzi Xiang Mazhao Town Zhouzhi County Xi’an City
Village Township Town
Biomass Biomass Commercial Biomass Commercial Commercial fuel Commercial
fuel fuel fuel

Family R ¼ .456 R ¼ .337 R ¼ .250 R ¼ .603 R ¼ .306 R ¼ .264 R ¼ .143

size
Family R ¼ .467 R ¼ .062 R ¼ .331 R ¼ .159 R ¼ .114 R ¼ .192 R ¼ .056
income

 Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

 Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

3.3. Spectrum of energy consumption

Energy is used for cooking, heating in winter, lighting, and entertainment; the energy
consumption spectra of the households in each study area were different (Fig. 4).

4. Discussion

4.1. Choice and consumption of energy source

Energy transition theory suggests that there is a ‘ladder of fuel preferences’ from low-
quality biomass based fuels to more efficient and versatile modern fuels such as kerosene,
LPG and electricity [28]. Our research confirms this theory: as income increases with
urbanization, the energy resource people choose shifts from low quality biomass to high
quality commercial fuels.
In the Laoxiancheng Village, because of meager transportation conditions and poor
economic condition, commercial energy sources like LPG and coal are not available.
Instead, the free and easy-to-gain energy source such as fuelwood is the one primarily used
by the village’s residents. Lack of alternative energy sources, easy access to fuelwood and
people having time to collect fuelwood in the bush all superimposed on the energy use
pattern in the Laoxiancheng Village.
There exist more alternative commercial energy sources in the Houzhenzi Xiang
Township than in the Laoxiancheng Village. However, the consumption of commercial
energy still only makes up a small percentage of the total energy used, due to the town’s
poor economic level. Both Laoxiancheng Village and Houzhenzi Xiang Township are near
forests, thus fuelwood remains as their most important energy source.
Mazhao Town is an agricultural area and lies far from any forest. Most households
use these crop residues as fuel. However, biomass is not enough as energy source for
the local community; many households also use coal. In addition to coal, electricity and
LPG are popular household energy sources in Mazhao. Nevertheless, the town’s
economical status still prevents extensive access to commercial energy sources like LPG
and electricity.
In the Zhouzhi County Town, biomass sources like fuelwood and crop residues are not
available. Similar to the Mazhao Town, coal is the most important energy source for the
households. LPG and electricity are commonly used as well, and the ratio of their
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120
Laoxiancheng Village
100
Total biomass consumed per

Houzhenzi Xiang Township

household per year (GJ)

Mazhao Town
80
Zhouzhi County Town
Xi'an City
60
y = -20.856x + 98.123

40 R2 = 0.2095

20

0
2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Income in per household per year (lg)

160
Laoxiancheng Village y = 38.008Ln (x) - 28.104
Total commercial energy consumed

140 Houzhenzi Xiang Township R2 = 0.0243

per household per year (GJ)

Mazhao Town
120
Zhouzhi County Town
100 Xi'an City

80

60

40

20

0
2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Income in per household per year (lg)

Fig. 3. The correlation between total biomass consumption (a) and commercial energy consumption (b) per
household per year and the family annual income in these five study sites.

consumption per household is much more than that of the communities previously
described; this is likely due to the different lifestyle and the improved economic status of
the residents in the town.
Among all sampled households in Xi’an City, none used coal; instead they used more
efficient and cleaner commercial energy sources like LPG, natural gas, gasoline and
electricity. According to the statistics of the municipal government in Xi’an City, the
number of households using coal is decreasing year by year in the city. The most important
energy is electricity due to the augmented use of electric appliances, which reflects the
higher economic status of the residents and their lifestyles [28].
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100%
90%
Lighting &
80%
entertainment
70% Fuel
60%
Heating
50%
40% Cooking

30%
20%
10%
0%
Laoxiancheng Houzhenzi Xiang Mazhao Town Zhouzhi County Xi’an City
Village Township Town

Fig. 4. Energy use pattern in the domestic sector of the five study sites.

4.2. Annual energy consumptions

Households in the Laoxiancheng Village have the highest annual energy consumption,
followed by those in the Houzhenzi Xiang Township, Zhouzhi County Town, Mazhao
Town, and then Xi’an City.
In the Laoxiancheng Village, the main energy resource is fuelwood. There are virtually
no limitations on wood collection, except that the villagers are prohibited to cut trees with
a diameter larger than 10 cm. Laoxiancheng locates in high altitude area with the longest
winter and lowest annual mean temperature among all study sites. People have to heat
their houses for nearly half a year. In the village, using of traditional stoves still prevail,
which only have energy transformation efficiencies of 10–20%. The energy transformation
efficiency of stove for fodder is even lower. Therefore, local villagers consume plenty of
fuelwood each year.
To some extent, household energy consumption patterns in Houzhenzi Xiang Township
are the same as those in the Laoxiancheng Village. Fuelwood is free and there are no
limitations on its collection except the size. The principle difference is that most households
in Houzhenzi Xiang Township use energy-saving stoves. Some other commercial energy
sources with better efficiency have been also introduced to this town. However, little
commercial energy was used here.
When lack of biomass is coupled with depressed economic circumstances, people use less
energy [29]. This is the situation in the Mazhao Town where no fuelwood is available. The
residents cannot afford commercial energy; they used crop residue for cooking. Although
the efficiency of crop residue stoves is low, the quantity of crop residue is likewise small,
thereby contributing little to total energy consumption. Having limited access to free
biomass, local people do not customarily heat their houses in the winter. Consequently,
overall energy consumption is much lower in the Mazhao Town than in the Laoxiancheng
Village and the Houzhenzi Xiang Township.
Most people in the Zhouzhi County Town choose coal as their prime energy source
because it is the cheapest. Unfortunately, coal is also the least efficient energy source. The
overall economic level in Zhouzhi town is better than that of Mazhao. As a result,
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households in the town use more energy than those in Mazhao. Also like the situation in
Mazhao town, few residents heat their homes in the winter, which saves a large amount of
energy.
In Xi’an City people use more efficient and convenient energy sources like natural gas
and electricity—the efficiencies of which are several times greater than those of coal and
biomass. With governmental and commercial encouragement, the idea of saving has
become quite popular in Xi’an. Therefore, the total energy consumed per household in
Xi’an City is the lowest among all sites studied.
Family size and family income are important factors in energy consumption. With a
larger family size, more biomass or commercial fuel is consumed. However, when the
family size is small those families consume more commercial energy in Houzhenzi Xiang
Township and Mazhao Town. Those families are families of young couples who prefer
using commercial fuel unlike their elders. The sizes of these new families are small because
of the strict Family Planning Policy in China. The family income also affects the energy
consumption. With the increasing of income, the consumption of biomass is decreasing
and that of commercial energy is increasing. However, we saw the decline in consumption
of biomass as household income increased was significant while the increase of commercial
fuel use was not obvious though the correlation was significant, that pattern probably was
due to the rigidity in energy consumption and the maximum energy requirement in
households.

4.3. Spectrum of energy consumption

From village to city, the energy consumption spectra in households change.

In the Laoxiancheng Village, almost all energy is spent on cooking and heating; no
energy is used for recreation. In Houzhenzi Xiang Township, cooking used the greatest
energy draw. A large ratio of energy was used for heating in both Laoxiancheng Village
and Houzhenzi Xiang Township, following the old, traditional custom of burning woods in
the winter. Electricity in the Houzhenzi Xiang Township is only used for illumination and
some electric appliances like TV.
There are almost no customs of heating in the Mazhao Town and the Zhouzhi County
Town in winter. Most of the energy the residents consumed was for cooking. The amount
of energy used for illumination and recreation was low, but the trend is to increase.
Compared to the other four study sites, the lifestyle of citizens in Xi’an City was more
comfortable. Although cooking still consumed the most energy, the amount was much
lower than that of rural areas and towns. Electricity consumption is a much more
important component of energy consumption. Heating in winter and using private vehicles
is more popular in the city.
With the development of urbanization and economics, people use less energy for basic
necessities of life, such as cooking, and more energy for recreation.

5. Conservation implications

Energy use should be based on sustainable development and the betterment of ecological
conditions in developing countries [22]. Currently the Chinese government is carrying out a
series of policies to improve the living standards for rural residents. One of the most
important of these processes is acceleration of the urbanization process in rural areas.
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Energy consumption structure should also be changed to improve the livelihood and living
standards observed in rural areas [21]. This prompts the question: what measures should be
taken to facilitate urbanization?
For households in villages, it is necessary to improve the end-use efficiency of
households and to decrease the total energy consumption. We do not expect commercial
energy sources, such as LPG and coal, to become popular in rural areas. Considering the
rich biomass resources near most villages, biomass residues will likely remain viable
solutions for villagers. Although these fuels are not as ‘‘clean’’ as LPG, improvements in
fuelwood stoves and innovations in residue stoves could provide efficient alternatives. The
promotion of such technologies would help reduce the impact of fuelwood demand on
fuelwood harvesting. For places where water resources are rich, hydropower could be
developed to produce electricity for illumination and other small electric appliances,
thereby decreasing the pressure on biomass collection.
For the households in towns in agricultural areas, residents could use crop residue or
livestock dung to produce biomass gas for cooking, thus reducing the use of coal. For
households in the county, where coal remains the primary energy resource, the government
should take measures to develop the equipment needed to generate access to natural gas
and other cleaner energy sources, thereby replacing coal step-by-step.
For people living in the city, it seems that their energy consumption is lower. However,
the population density in the city is much higher than that in villages and the larger part of
indirect energy consumption (i.e., the energy that is embodied in goods and services
purchased by consumers) is not discussed here [30]. Thus, the most important thing for
households in the city to learn is how to save energy. Some research supports this idea,
showing that changing consumer behavior is generally considered to be an option to
reduce energy consumption [31].

6. Conclusions

From village to city in central China, the patterns of energy consumption vary
substantially. The energy choices shift from free biomass to cleaner commercial sources
like LPG, electricity and natural gas. As lifestyles become more urbanized, the proportion
of energy used for cooking also decreases, except among the few households requiring heat
in the winter, as seen in the Mazhao Town and the Zhouzhi Town. Likewise, the
proportion of energy used for recreation and electricity end uses also increases. For homes
in villages, for example, it was necessary to decrease the total energy consumption to
improve end-use energy efficiency. Households in townships in agricultural area should use
crop residue or livestock dung to produce biomass gas for cooking, thereby reducing the
use of coal. Households in county towns should use natural gas and other cleaner energy
resources to replace coal step-by-step. For household in the city, in contrast, saving energy
becomes important due to its dense population.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the CAS Innovative Research International Partnership Project

(CXTDS2005-4), Columbus Zoo; UAS field conservation funds for financial support of
the study. We thank Zeng Yan, Li Nan, and the students from Xi’an Green Camp for help
during the field survey. We thank the management authorities and staff of the
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J. Cai, Z. Jiang / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12 (2008) 1667–1680 1679

Laoxiancheng Village, Houzhenzi Xiang Township, Mazhao Town, Zhouzhi County

Town and Xi’an City for help during the field surveys.

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