Clean energy is the wave of the future. And the largely rural area of northwestern China is leading the pack. A women's group in Shaanxi province recently caught the attention of the international community.
It won second prize from a UK-based charity for sustainable energy.
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The women's group has been promoting the use of biogas for cooking and lighting gas lamps in rural areas.
Wang Mingying is the founder of the Shaanxi Mothers Environmental Protection Volunteers Association.
She started the group nine years ago, after seeing what pollution and deforestation was doing to the land she grew up on.
After decades of soil erosion, the government is on a drive to save trees.
Villagers had to come up with an alternative to wood.
Since farmers normally keep human and pig waste together, Wang decided the set-up is fit for a biogas system.
She says turning waste into cleaner energy has helped better the lives of farmers.
"We have taken the traditional smoky wood-stove kitchen and changed it into a cleaner one with a gas stove, just like the ones people use in the city. It’s clean and convenient."
Wang and her team began teaching rural women to raise pigs and use its waste to produce biogas.
Nothing is left unused.
Any waste made while producing the methane is also used to fertilize its crops, helping farmers cut down on chemical fertilizers.
Wang says this way every household has a self sustainable energy source.
"If we can successfully push for biogas use, we can save the cost of coal, electricity, labour and money. It increases the quality of fertilizer our output. It also reduces the use of chemical fertilizers, reduces the number of insects and soil erosion. These are all of its advantages."
Almost 13-hundred families have facilities to produce methane in their own homes across the province.
It's estimated a family can save around a thousand yuan or 120 dollars US a year in coal, wood, fertilizer, and electricity costs by using this biogas.
The women's efforts caught the attention of the Ashden Awards based in the UK.
The Shaanxi group is the sole Chinese winner this year.
"Our biogas revolution is like a sunflower growing in the countryside. We hope millions of farmers will reap great benefits from it, namely a change for a better lifestyle. This kind of project has won us an international prize, and this shows the international community recognizes our efforts, so we are very excited and happy about this."
The cash prize is a hundred-thousand yuan, or 12-thousand six hundred dollars US.
The Shaanxi group has put the money towards pushing biogas use in two new villages.
There were many sceptics along the way including Wang's husband.
But Wang says they will continue to spread the use of cleaner energy, one village at a time.
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Director: Liu Chi