In August 2022, with the support of Energy Foundation China, Tsinghua University released this research report presenting a strategy for developing more renewable energy in Shanxi Province’s rural areas and comparing technological solutions for eliminating scattered coal in the central urban cluster of the coal-dependent province.

In the report, the project researchers emphasize the need for low carbon development in Shanxi and its air-polluting Fenhe-Weihe Plains. They propose to create low carbon villages and pursue an approach that combines coal substitution, decarbonization, and rural revitalization to provide an innovative and replicable strategy for rural renewable energy development.

The researchers also present in the report a practical and actionable coal elimination technical pathway tailored to the realities of rural areas in the central part of the province. Based on quantitative optimization analysis methods, they give a menu of comprehensive solutions and identify the optimal approaches for coal control. The researchers hope this project can provide scientific evidence for advancing coal elimination efforts in rural areas of Shanxi Province.