A new generation of clean energy represented by marsh gas is gradually replacing the traditional firewood in China's vast rural areas.

Statistics show that by the end of 2001, more than 10 million rural households had been using marsh gas throughout the country and more than 400 counties had turned into ecotypic agricultural bases backed by marsh gas energy.

In southwest China's Yunnan Province, for instance, the number of rural households using marsh gas had reached 800,000 by the end of 2002, among which 180,000 were newly added last year under a provincial government program.

Marsh gas is a kind of clean energy produced through airtight fermentation of stalks and can be used as fuel to light lamps and cook meals. Meanwhile, marsh liquid can be used to feed such livestock as pigs and marsh residue can be used as high-quality fertilizer.

Thanks to the use of marsh gas, Yunnan province is able to save 2.4 million tons of firewood each year, almost equal to 40,000 hectares of forest or two million tons of coal.

Each local rural household, therefore, is able to save US$60 to 96 on energy each year, and the annual economic profit generated by the use of marsh gas has exceeded US$72 million on the whole.

Other kinds of clean energy witnessing increasing popularity include solar energy, electrical power, wind power and gasified stalks.

According to a national development program on the use of marsh gas, another 11 million rural households will be able to use the clean energy by the end of 2005, which means ten percent of the overall rural households will have access to it by then. That figure is expected to increase to 20 percent by the end of 2010.

In Yunnan province, another 300,000 rural households will be able to use marsh gas this year and some 80,000 square meters of solar-energy water heater will be built with the help of the provincial government.

Experts believe that by the end of 2010, 80 percent of 50 million rural households will be able to use clean energy of some kind, which will not only improve the living standards of rural residents but protect forest wood by a large extent.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2003)