Spatial Assessment of Rural Energy Demand and Straw Resource Availability

Qian Chen; Zhuang Sun; Douglas Hungwe; Xiaoyu Yan; Yifei Wang; Guangsuo Yu; Fuchen Wang; Lu Ding

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.021

Engineering ›› :202605021 DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.021

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Spatial Assessment of Rural Energy Demand and Straw Resource Availability

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Abstract

Despite the critical role of rural energy transitions in global decarbonization, the spatial alignment between regional energy demand and local biomass resource endowments remains insufficiently explored. Here, we develop a spatially explicit framework that integrates agricultural, energy, population and carbon datasets to compare rural energy consumption and straw resource distribution in China and globally. We find that although rural electrification in China now covers approximately 41% of the total area, mitigation benefits are constrained by a coal-dominated supply (61%), indicating that electrification does not deliver decarbonization uniformly. On the resource side, China generates approximately 0.95 Gt of crop residues from major food crops annually, corresponding to 0.54 gigatonnes of standard coal equivalent (Gtce), yet less than 10% is utilized for fuel, underscoring a paradox of resource abundance versus underutilization. By incorporating collection-radius thresholds, we delineate suitability zones, identifying major grain belts such as northeast China and the Yangtze River Plain as appropriate for large-scale deployment, whereas hilly and fragmented agricultural regions are more compatible with decentralized pathways. At the global scale, straw resources and rural populations are strongly coupled in south Asia, southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, yet disparities in per capita availability highlight divergent transition pathways across income groups. Our study establishes a spatially explicit basis for linking rural energy demand with straw resource suitability, providing evidence to guide differentiated deployment strategies and to support rural clean energy transitions.

Keywords

Rural energy / Straw availability / Carbon emissions / Spatial distribution / Energy security

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Qian Chen, Zhuang Sun, Douglas Hungwe, Xiaoyu Yan, Yifei Wang, Guangsuo Yu, Fuchen Wang, Lu Ding. Spatial Assessment of Rural Energy Demand and Straw Resource Availability. Engineering 202605021 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.021

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