Opportunities and Challenges for Bioelectricity in Rural China

Increasing economic growth continues to drive China's growing need for energy. Responding to environment pollution and energy shortage, more and more attention has been paid to biomass-based energy in recent years. As China is rich in biomass resources, biomass resources in rural and the development of bioenergy are introduced briefly. Choosing Laixi County as a case study, the opportunities and challenges for bioelectricity from crop straw are analyzed and discussed. The crop straw production potential for bioelectricity in Laixi is estimated. The establishment of distributed collection spot is more conducive to reducing crop straw collection cost. This method is good for both farmers and power plants. In addition, the current policy schemes on biomass-based energy are presented, and policy recommendations to lower the barriers to bioelectricity development for rural China are discussed.