1. Project background
In September 2020, Xi Jinping, President of China, announced at the United Nations General Assembly that “China’s carbon dioxide emissions will strive to peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060”.
In February 2021, the China’s central government issued opinions on comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating agricultural modernization.
China has one of the oldest civilizations in the world. China’s agricultural population accounts for more than 40% of the total population, and the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and rural areas account for 15% of the total emissions. Promoting rural low-carbon energy consumption and smart micro-grid to realize energy conservation and carbon reduction is an important way to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutralization in China.
2. Project overview
Starting from Beijing, the capital of China, one may take the high-speed train to the south and in four hours will arrive at Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County, Anhui Province, the village leading China’s rural reform.
In 1978, 18 villagers in Xiaogang Village signed the letters of land contract responsibility, which became the prelude to China’s rural reform. Today, on Xiaogang Village’s 15 square kilometers of land, a total of 4,127 villagers from 923 families are building a modern and green village in China through the integrated smart energy project.
Fig. 1-1 Archways of Xiaogang Village
Fig. 1-2 Residential neighborhoods of Xiaogang village
This project is the first attempt of Xiaogang Village, the “village leading China’s rural reform”, and State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC), which is the world’s largest clean energy power generation enterprise, to achieve rural energy transformation and low carbon emission. It is the first modern and green village integrated smart energy project built by the SPIC, and is also one of the first batch of modern and green village integrated smart energy projects in China.
According to local conditions and local resource endowments, the project provides 100% clean energy sources, 100% clean cooling and heating, and 100% comprehensive utilization of crop straw to this village, whose output value of the village’s iconic industries exceeds 100 million yuan. The means of provision of such services include ecological energy such as solar photovoltaic power generation, ground source heat pump, comprehensive utilization of straw biomass, integrated smart facilities such as solar photovoltaic-energy storage-charging sheds, smart street lighting and seats. On this basis, the interconnection and mutual supply with the State Grid are established.
It is worth mentioning that Fengyang County, where Xiaogang village is located, is the hometown and tomb location of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China, the history of which can be traced back to more than 600 years ago. Xiaogang village has abundant wind resources, but considering the custom and tradition of “feng shui”, Xiaogang village decided to exclude wind power from integrated smart energy projects.
In addition, the project effectively connects the energy network, government affairs network, and community network through the “Tianshu-1” integrated smart energy management and service platform – a new digital system, and sends the information regarding government affairs, agricultural affairs, business, tourism, health care, and education and training to every family and organization in Xiaogang Village instantaneously and accurately. Since then, China has the first village committee to manage complex governance affairs with powerful digital tools. Every family in the village has lived a modern, green and affluent life on the field of hope.
3. Specific results of the project
Xiaogang village is a pioneer of China’s rural reform and an AAAA historical and cultural tourist attraction of China, with an average annual visitor flow of more than 600,000. It is also a rural practical talents training base for the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, receiving more than 6,000 trainees each year.
(1) The project plans a solar photovoltaic power generation system with a design life of 25 years and a total capacity of 18.7MW(11.25MW has been built in Phase One), located at the intersection of Gaige Avenue and Chuangxin Avenue, two main streets of Xiaogang Village, Majiaba Reservoir, the visitor center, and the roofs of farmers’ houses, with an annual electricity generation capacity of 21.774 million kWh. It is interconnected with the State Grid to provide clean power to Xiaogang Village’s historical museum, training college, village committee’s office, and every household.
(2) The project has built two 120kW DC charger piles with a design life of 10 years in the solar photovoltaic shed of the visitor center. Each charger is equipped with two charging guns and a 100kW / 200kwh energy storage equipment, so as to realize the integration of solar photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, and charging, to provide sufficient clean energy for the visitor center and charger piles, and to store the extra power generated from solar photovoltaic cells for use at night.
(3) Smart streetlights with such functions as environmental monitoring, security monitoring, regional noise monitoring, emergency police have been built in the neighborhoods, training college, historical museum, and bus stops of tourist attractions; Smart street seats with such functions as resting, mobile phone charging, Wi-Fi, lighting, information release, and emergency call have also been installed. While saving energy, such facilities also help with village affairs management and make tourists’ resting easier.
(4) The cooling and heating systems of the historical museum, the village committee’s office, and the nursing home has been upgraded. The cooling and heating energy source system is a magnetic levitation ground source heat pump, which provides cooling in summer and heating in winter. The simultaneity usage coefficient of the air conditioning system is 0.9, the cooling load is 450kW, and the heat load is 318kW. With the installation of ground source heat pump system, cooling and heating with clean energy are fully realized, saving about 75% of electricity cost.
(5) Smart agriculture: Ten solar insect killer lamps have been built in the farmland where photovoltaic agriculture is practiced. Solar photovoltaic hydroponics are applied in areas where photovoltaic agriculture is practiced. Solar photovoltaic container plant factory scheme is adopted, in which photovoltaic cells are installed on the top side of containers to provide clean energy for the LED lighting system, air conditioning system, and water system of hydroponic culture.
(6) Smart government affairs: PC-end software/phone APPs are designed, the functions of which include: web portal, document management, transaction management, culture center, knowledge center, system configuration, comprehensive management, supervision, and one-click police reporting. Thus, the modern digital paperless office for the management of village affairs is realized for the first time.
(7) Smart healthcare: One-button medical alert systems, smart watches, and smart cameras are installed in the nursing home, and are connected to the PC-end software/phone APPs, thus realizing remote video consultations with external high-quality doctors, real-time healthcare of the elderly, and a safe and happy life for the elderly in their hometown.
(8) Smart education: Distance education and training is provided, which shares excellent external teachers while training Xiaogang Village’s own teachers in kindergartens, primary schools, and junior middle schools.
(9) Smart tourism: Analysis of the whole process of tourism in Xiaogang Village is conducted to provide the best personalized options for tourists on mobile phone APPs.
(10) “Tianshu-1” integrated smart energy management and service platform is created, which integrates energy, government affairs, agriculture, education, health care, and tourism, so as to realize centralized monitoring and management of solar photovoltaic, energy storage, charging piles, cooling and heat load, and within-village power distribution system; and through data sharing and analysis and regional-level performance calculation and analysis within the integrated smart energy project, the integration and dynamic smart management of energy and life in the village can be realized, which raises the comprehensive energy utilization rate of project, reduces carbon emissions, and improves villagers’ quality of life and increases tourist satisfaction.
(11) Gender inclusion is taken into full consideration in the project. Six women have played important roles in the design and construction of the project. As chief engineers, main designers, and main managers of the project, they have completed various kinds of work excellently. In addition, most of the elderly in Xiaogang Village are women, and the smart health care system is helping them live a healthy, long-lived, and happy life, and allows women in Xiaogang village’s every family to work in agriculture and business and live their lives more efficiently and effectively.
(12) Xiaogang Village’s integrated smart energy project and Fengyang County’s smart energy project have been included as a model case into the “low-carbon development and optimization of energy infrastructure in China’s small and medium-sized towns” program of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
4. Overall effects of the project
(1) China’s standards and Anhui’ provincial standards are that the construction and development of beautiful countryside need to use traditional fuels such as wood, grass, and straw scientifically and gradually reduce such use, promote the use of clean energy such as electricity, solar, wind, biogas, and natural gas, and the proportion of farmers using clean energy should be ≥ 70%. Xiaogang Village integrated smart energy project 100% meets and is superior to the China and Anhui provincial standards for the construction of beautiful countryside.
(2) Through the overall implementation of the project, Xiaogang Village’s average annual power generation capacity will reach 21.7774 million kWh, carbon dioxide emission is reduced by 18,315 tons, SO2 emission is reduced by 480 tons, and NOx emission is reduced by 240 tons, which has remarkable environmental benefits.
(3) Taking Xiaogang Village’s 2020 electricity consumption of 10.56 million kWh as the reference value, through the implementation of the project, 100% clean energy power substitution has been fully realized, and thus, Xiaogang Village has become the first batch of China’s low-carbon emission village. The problem of straw treatment since the middle of the past century has also been effectively solved through the comprehensive utilization production line. The clean application of biomass pellet fuel production has helped realize “carbon neutralization” in Xiaogang village.
(4) Through the construction of photovoltaic agricultural and solar photovoltaic facilities on the lands, reservoir and roofs, this project brings an annual income of 50,000 USD to the village collective and villagers. The straw purchase for the comprehensive straw utilization production line increases the village collective’s and villagers’ annual income by about 350,000 USD. In 2021, the integrated smart energy project brought Xiaogang villagers an annual income increase of 2%, year-on-year, and created dozens of jobs.
(5) With its vision, planning, demonstration, and achievements, Xiaogang Village’s modern and green village integrated smart energy project tells how Chinese villages get close to nature in the most appropriate way in modern society, and how Chinese villages maintain their established customs and traditions (such as “feng shui”) while coping with development and environmental challenges. Phase One, which took three months to complete, and Phase Two, which is expected to be completed in four months (considering the time needed for inspecting the roofs of each household for the application of solar photovoltaic generation, and the fact that the straw system is relatively complex and the production cycle is slightly longer) of the Xiaogang Village project are successful cases of the construction of modern and green village in China, and a window for the world to understand the successful protection of ecology and the construction of modern and green in Chinese villages under the challenge of climate change. It is expected that other economies will be inspired by and benefit from the success of Xiaogang village.
5. Next step of planning for the project
The second phase of the Xiaogang village project is planned to expand the solar photovoltaic power generation system at Majiaba Reservoir, farmland for photovoltaic agriculture, and roofs of villagers’ houses by about 7.5mw, with about 6 million USD investment and an expected 9% rate of return.
In the next three years, with reference to the Xiaogang Village project model, SPIC will develop modern and green village integrated smart energy projects in 565 counties, and will take “Tianshu-1” as the smart brain to enable low-carbon transformation of rural energy, digital management, affluent and happy life, and modern and green village on the field of hope.
| Corresponding points of ESCI scoring mechanism | ||
| Number | Corresponding points of ESCI scoring mechanism | Description of key points |
| One | STRATEGY | |
| 1 | Innovativeness | |
| 1.1 | Is the innovative concept come from the project itself or other existing programs? | 1. Xiaogang Village integrated smart energy project is the first modern and green integrated smart energy project of SPIC, and it is also one of the first batch of integrated smart energy projects of modern and green village in China.
2. The project’s smart brain system “Tianshu-1” connects the energy network, government affairs network, and community network, and sends the information regarding government affairs, agricultural affairs, business, tourism, health care, and education and training to Xiaogang Village instantaneously and accurately, becoming China’s first software that manage village governance affairs with smart and digital technologies. |
| 1.2 | How the innovative policy design encourages financial support and public-private partnership? | 1. The local government has provided nearly 600 hectare of idle land to the SPIC for the development of clean energy.
2. Photovoltaic agriculture has attracted the investment from the ChunHe Modern Agriculture Technology Company to plant crops on the land where photovoltaic cells are installed. |
| 1.3 | How does the innovative concept catch the trend of future development? | 1. Before 2025, the project will be replicated by SPIC to the development and construction projects for villages in 565 counties of China.
2. Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s “low-carbon development model of small and medium-sized towns in China”. |
| 2 | Inspiration | |
| 2.1 | Whether the idea can inspire later/subsequent cases? | The project’s smart brain “Tianshu-1” will be used
in 565 projects counties by 2025. |
| 2.2 | What domain has been enlightened by this policy? | 1. The Chinese Central Government’s “Implementation Opinions of on Accelerating the Transformation and Development of Rural Energy and Promoting Rural Revitalization” is a guiding document for the project, which sets the aim as being beneficial for the construction of clean, low-carbon, eco-friendly, livable, and beautiful countryside.
2. It is mentioned in “2021 Instructions on Energy Work” issued by the National Energy Administration that clean heating should be developed in southern China according to local conditions. This is the guiding document for the application of ground source heat pump in the project. |
| 3 | Clearness | |
| Is there any open and transparent channel of public communication? | 1. The general public can get to know the general conditions, progress, and implementation of the Xiaogang village project through SPIC’s WeChat official account. As of February 2022, there are 30,000 hits on the topic.
2. Fengyang Television Station, People’s Daily Online, and other important media outlets have very positive reports and comments on the Xiaogang Village project. |
|
| Is there any difference between this policy and other similar policies? | 1. The project adapts to local conditions, makes full use of local resource endowments and traditions to carry out personalized development, and has been built Xiaogang village into the first low-carbon village in Anhui Province within three months.
2. Smart brain of “Tianshu-1” is developed to integrate energy, government affairs, agriculture, education, health care, and tourism for integrated management. |
|
| Two | MEASURE | |
| 4 | Practicability | |
| 4.1 | Has any effective measure for moving ahead teen made? | 1. By 2025, the SPIC will promote low-carbon transformation of rural energy in 565 counties.
2. The smart brain system “Tianshu-1”, will be used in all above integrated smart energy projects. |
| 4.2 | Is there any numerical goal for reference? | “Tianshu-1” includes 9 functions: energy overview, intelligent prediction, intelligent regulation, intelligent operation, and intelligent maintenance, which can be developed and used in standardized menus. |
| 5 | Replicability | |
| 5.1 | Could the ideas, methods or techniques hp applied internationally? | 1. Environmental adaptability: Rural population accounts for 60% of the world’s total population. APEC economies have abundant solar energy, wind energy, geothermal and other resources. With reference to the successful model of Xiaogang Village, we can make use of renewable resources according to local conditions and implement clean energy substitution.
2. Experience exchange: Along with Xiaogang Village, SPIC is willing to carry out exchange of experiences with APEC economies for both sides to achieve success. |
| 6 | Cost effectiveness | |
| 6.1 | Will it be cost-effective to implement? | The total investment of Phase One and Phase Two of the project is about 15 million USD, and the average internal rate of return is 6%, which meets the investment recovery requirements of SPIC’s profit, and has remarkable emission reduction benefits. |
| 6.2 | Is there any measurable reduction of emission or energy use? Please describe the measurement method. | 1. 18,315 tons of CO2 emission, 480 tons of SO2 emission, and 240 tons of NOx emissions are reduced each year. The electricity consumption of Xiaogang Village in 2020 was 10.56 million kWh, which indicates that Xiaogang village has become a “low-carbon” village where clean energy has completely replaced traditional energy for electricity generation.
2. In the measurement, the standard coal consumption for the average power supply of thermal power plants is set as 307.6g / kWh, and the carbon dioxide emission per unit of thermal power generation is set as about 841g / kWh. |
| 7 | Consistency | |
| 7.1 | Are adopted measures consistent with energy policy and strategy? | 1. In line with the low carbon emission target of the Paris Climate Accords.
2. In line with the APEC’s initiative on the development of low-carbon towns. 3. In line with the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation and Development of Rural Energy and Promoting Rural Revitalization (China’s National Energy Administration’s planning [2021] No. 66). 4. In line with the “Guidelines for the Construction of Beautiful Countryside” (June 2015) issued by the Standardization Administration of China. |
| 7.2 | Is there any long-term measure or implementing organization for this project? | In 2021, SPIC established the Integrated Smart Energy Research Center and the Integrated Smart Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to study and implement 4 types and 33 scenarios of integrated smart energy projects: smart towns, centralized buildings, industrial parks, and energy bases, including modern and green village integrated smart energy projects. |
| Three | PERFORMANCE | |
| 8 | Completeness | |
| 8.1 | Is the achievement scale measurable? | 1. Achieved 100% clean energy substitution, 100% comprehensive utilization of crop straw, and 100% harmless treatment of garbage and sewage in Xiaogang Village.
2. There is an area of 4,500 m2 for cooling and heating by ground source heat pump, saving about 75% of electricity cost. 3. “Tianshu-1” has passed the certification examination by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment. (CNAS). |
| 8.2 | Will it make a considerable success in project goals? | Phase One of the project is completed on time in 2021, and all expected objectives have been achieved. The construction of Phase Two has been started as planned in February 2022, and is expected to be completed in June 2022. |
| 9 | Verifiability | |
| 9.1 | Is there any data presented to support the project? | 1. Awards: excellence award of the China Integrated Smart Energy Industry Association.
2. News reports: People’s daily, sohu.com, chinapower.org.cn, and other media reports. 3. Interviews: appreciative comments by the director of the Xiaogang Village Committee |
| 9.2 | Is there any supportive measurement or reference for the provided data? | 1. Pictures of the award
2. News websites 3. Promotional videos |
| 10 | Impact | |
| 10.1 | Will it make a significant change in the field of energy efficiency and energy saving? | 1. As a clean energy, solar photovoltaic energy has completely replaced fossil energy in the village, realizing 100% clean energy substitution.
2. As a renewable energy, ground source heat pump makes full use of geothermal resources and saves 75% of electricity. 3. The overall carbon dioxide emissions of the project is reduced by 18,315 tons / year. |
| 10.2 | Will it impact multiple operational areas or just single specific area? | 1. As a reference example, such kind of projects will be implemented for the development of 565 counties in 31 provinces across China.
2. Strategic cooperation has been reached with the Anhui Farming Group Co., Ltd. to jointly build a “double green project” that integrates green energy and green agriculture, and will have 50% of the economy market share in 2033. |
| 11 | Inclusiveness | |
| 11.1 | Is it gender inclusive | 1. Six women have played an important role in the design and construction of the project. As chief engineers, main designers, and main managers of the project, they have completed various kinds of work excellently.
2. Most of the elderly in Xiaogang Village are women, and the smart health care system is helping them live a healthy, long-lived, and happy life, and allows women in Xiaogang village’s every family to work in agriculture and business and live their lives more efficiently and effectively. |
What is the policy, vision, or objective of the town? Please specify the actual goal and its metrics, if applicable.
16,000 tons of CO2 emission, 480 tons of SO2 emission, and 240 tons of NOx emissions are reduced each year. The electricity consumption of Xiaogang Village in 2020 was 10.56 million kWh, which indicates that Xiaogang village has become a "zerocarbon" village where clean energy has completely replaced traditional energy for electricity generation.
What private company, non-government ogranizations are/will be involved in development of the project?
State Power Investment Corporation Limited of China (SPIC), they involved in implementation.
How is/will be the development of the town funded?
Photovoltaic agriculture has attracted the investment from the ChunHe Modern Agriculture Technology Company to plant crops on the land where photovoltaic cells are installed.