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One in Every Ten Guangxi Farmhouses Uses Biogas
One in every ten farmhouses in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region uses biogas, according to the latest figures from the regional energy office.
Renewable energy is replacing the traditional burning of firewood to become the major fuel resource for household use in this region, which lacks energy resources and the economy of which depends mainly on agriculture.
More than 700,000 biogas generators have been installed in ordinary farmhouses in Guangxi. They process human and livestock waste into methane gas for cooking. This year, another 200,000 generators will be built, according to the regional government's development plan.
"Cooking becomes easy with biogas, just pressing a button which produces blue flame on the kitchen range," Liang Tianshu, a farmer in Gaoren village said.
The popularization of the new energy source, which spread at a annual rate of 35 percent last year, has been attributed to the improved living standard in rural areas. In Gongcheng County, where 70 percent of the local residents have used biogas, farmers use the by-products of the biogas instead of chemicals to fertilize their orchards. Fruit-growing brings in 1,600 yuan ( about 192 US dollars) of per-capita income a year.
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