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[Display omitted] • This paper summaries the present regulations and policies concerning M−TES (Mobilized thermal energy storage) in China. • The policies are analyzed based on the aspects including facility manufacture and operation, road transportation, and financial guidance. • The results can provide references for the government or policy makers to promote the development and safe operation of M−TES in China. Mobilized thermal energy storage (M−TES) is a promising technology to transport heat without the limitation of pipelines, therefore suitable for collecting distributed renewable or recovered resources. In particular, the M−TES can be flexibly used for the emergency heating in the COVID-19 era. Though the M−TES has been commercializing in China, there is not any specific regulation or standard for M−TES systems. Therefore, this paper summarizes and discusses the existing regulations and policies concerning M−TES in the aspects of facility manufacture and operation, road transportation, and financial support and guidance. Furthermore, the suggestions were presented including necessary consensus on the development of M−TES among different departments, consideration of local conditions when drafting or revising regulations and policies, sufficient investment, or subsidy on the R&D of M−TES, and qualification recognition of M−TES companies and staffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central and local policies have played an important role in the implementation of rural clean heating, and have also accelerated the improvement of air quality in Northern China. Among these policies, the subsidy policies have the most significant impact on rural clean heating. However, due to some inappropriate subsidy policies, they have also caused many problems, such as the reburning of scattered coal. To effectively solve the current problems and further optimize the subsidy policies, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is selected as the research object in the present paper to evaluate the subsidy policies of rural clean heating, and analyze the insufficiency of central policies as well as the burden of subsidy on local finance. The results show that there is an issue of inequality on the central subsidy policies of rural clean heating, and a huge difference in the central government's subsidy amount per household more than 8 times between different cities. In terms of the local subsidy policies, the ratio of clean heating subsidy to local fiscal expenditure fluctuate more and more from the province, city to county level, and some counties have been at a high fiscal pressure level. Based on the current situation of rural clean heating in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, it is suggested to optimize the subsidy policies systematically from the optimization of work goals, the adjustment of central policies, the improvement of local policies and the enhancement of policy assessment. This study is aimed to provide references for the policy optimization of rural clean heating in Northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China's heat metering technology has developed rapidly in recent years, the improvement demonstrates an unbalance in different provinces. It is of great significance to outlook application and sustainability of heat metering technology in various regions technically. Taking the sustainability of heat metering technology as research object, the author establishes a sustainable evaluation model in this paper. Factors in the evaluation model are assigned through a main questionnaire and actual application of typical projects. A pecking-order contrast method is adopted to determine weights of factors in the evaluation model, correspondingly sustainable development of heat metering in various locations is assessed. Sustainability scores in three regions (Northeast, Northwest and North China) are obtained via evaluation model. The model owns high accuracy compared with results of heat metering work assessment by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD). The heat metering in the three regions score 60, 62 and 75, respectively, implying that the sustainability in the northeast and northwest is unsatisfactory but in north is somehow better. It is suggested that envelope heat insulation should be increased in the northeast region, while policy support and heat metering technology ought to be enhanced in the northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The rapid development of urbanization has created high demand for central heating systems. This trend has led to an increase in energy consumption for central heating, which has made China's energy-saving transformation extremely difficult. However, the channel by which urbanization impacts and the future trends of energy consumption for central heating are still unclear. Therefore, this study employs the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to decompose the effect of urbanization on changes in energy consumption for central heating during 2001–2019 in China. We investigate the contribution of urbanization from demographic, economic and spatial perspectives. Additionally, a scenario analysis is used to explore trends in energy consumption for central heating in different projected urbanization scenarios. The results show that urbanization has a positive impact on energy consumption for central heating, particularly in underdeveloped regions. Demographic urbanization has the strongest positive effect on energy consumption for central heating, followed by spatial urbanization and then economic urbanization. Compared with the expansion of area and economic development, population agglomeration will bring more energy consumption for central heating. The forecasting results indicate that energy consumption for central heating will reach 176–189 Mtce in 2030, which is approximately 1.4 times the current level. This work quantifies the energy consumption for central heating in the future under urbanization. The policy recommendations given at the end of the paper will provide a reference for the formulation of energy consumption for central heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Solar hot air heating systems are more suitable for application in plateau areas. • Embedding PCM optimizes solar heating systems using air-medium ETC. • Performance of several solar heating systems in plateau areas is compared. • Solar heating systems have low energy efficiency under poor building envelopes. • Parameter study results provide reference for solar hot air systems' design. Rich solar energy resources in plateau areas of Western China are suitable for local heating. However, common solar heating systems face the potential hazard and maintenance difficulties caused by climatic conditions. In this paper, the solar hot air heating system using the air medium evacuated tube collectors (ETCs) with embedding phase change materials (PCM) was discussed, which can be a good solution in plateau areas. The whole system model was built in TRNSYS software and validated with practical data. Then the comparative study was conducted to evaluate the energy-efficiency performance and feasibility of six kinds of solar heating systems, which also involved the fully electric heating, based on the three thermal types of buildings in Lhasa. It was concluded that the solar hot air heating system is the most suitable application in plateau areas, which shifts more solar energy to night time heating and requires less maintenance. Furthermore, the influence of parameters on the system performance was also investigated, such as collector area, buffer tank volume and electric power. This study will help the design and application of solar hot air heating system with PCM in plateau areas for winter heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The energy consumption of 38 Chinese district heating systems was investigated and compared. • Method to break down the consumption and evaluate the operational problems was presented. • Field measurements were conducted to evaluate problems leading to high energy consumption. • Overheating was responsible for 23% of total heat consumption. • Resistance, operation flow, and pump efficiency were three major problems in distribution networks. Worldwide, China has the largest district heating (DH) area and is also the fastest growing country. This paper presents field measurement results for operational energy consumption from 38 DHSs to fill in the gaps in understanding of the current operational issues of the district heating system (DHS). The average heat consumption during the heating period was 98.6 kWh/m2 and the monthly average electricity consumption for circulating pumps in the primary and secondary networks was 0.27 kWh/(m2 × month) and 0.29 kWh/(m2 × month), respectively. Thereafter, a systematic method for breaking down the energy consumption and quantitatively evaluating the underlying problems is presented. Based on several detailed measurements conducted in typical heat-exchange substations (HESs), it was found that overheating was the most prominent problem in energy-efficient buildings, constituting 23% of the total heat consumption. Another problem encountered was heat loss through pipes, which constituted approximately 5%–10% of the total heat consumption and was highly dependent on the actual conditions. In distribution networks, problems such as high resistance, high operational flow, and low pump efficiency were also identified and analyzed. Finally, practical energy-efficiency suggestions and future potential targets for the Chinese DHS are discussed from both a design and operational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The replacing of a coal-fired boiler by a GWHP system is investigated. • The operation of each system has been monitored over one-year period. • The boiler has lower investments and covers lower thermal load than the GWHP. • GWHP shows higher economic performance considering Average Energy Price. • GWHP system may be cost effective over traditional boilers for applications. Currently in China, the replacement of coal-fired boilers by clean and renewable energy sources is considered as an essential measure to alleviate air pollution. This paper investigates the thermo-economic performance of replacing a coal-fired boiler by a Groundwater Heat Pump (GWHP) system for a greenhouse, where the GWHP system was constructed to reduce emission and also to provide cooling. The operation of this system has been monitored over a one–year period. The results show that the thermal efficiency factor of the boiler varies in the range of 0.53–0.68 and the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the GWHP system averages at 4.1 for cooling and at 3.3 for heating. Although the boiler has both lower capital costs and lower operating costs, the analysis of Average Energy Price (AEP) shows that the GWHP system has a higher economic performance, since it has a lower AEP of 0.040 USD /kWh in heating and 0.023 USD/kWh in cooling over an expecting lifetime of 20 years, in comparison to the boiler at 0.052 USD/kWh over a lifetime of 10 years. This indicates that GWHP system may be considered as an alternative over traditional boilers in terms of thermo-economic performance for applications in other places of the world with similar climate condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]