In the heart of summer, the fields of Dehui in Jilin are a lush green. A comprehensive clean heating renovation project utilizing "solar+" technology, which will cover 15,000 rural households, is now fully underway.

Across towns and villages, solar thermal collection tubes are being simultaneously installed on farmers' rooftops. The rumble of construction machinery mingles with the cheerful voices of villagers, painting a new picture of green heating in the cold-climate countryside, spreading across the fertile black soil.

The entire project is slated for completion by October 31st, ensuring it is operational before the winter freeze sets in. This renovation will completely replace traditional rural heating methods reliant on loose coal and crop stalks, phasing out the old, highly polluting, and inefficient heating models to improve the living environment in rural areas from the ground up.

Ni Guitian, a resident of Songbai Village's Second Community in Dehui's Huifa Subdistrict, is among the first beneficiaries. She stood at her courtyard gate, watching workers hoist the new heating equipment, filled with anticipation.

"In previous years, by the end of July, we'd be busy stockpiling stalks and buying loose coal, spending the whole autumn worrying about heating fuel," said Ni, highlighting the long-standing winter heating challenges for households in cold regions. "We used to rely entirely on the heated brick bed. The part near the firebox would be scorching hot, while the far end was icy cold. We'd have to get up at two or three in the morning to add firewood or coal. Soot from the coal would blacken furniture and windows all year round."

Fellow villager Sun Yanjun also came to observe the construction site. Speaking about the new heating system, what matters most to him is cleanliness and convenience: "We won't have to clean out ash from the stove every day anymore. The house won't be filled with coal dust, making it much more pleasant to live in."

According to on-site construction personnel, the installation and commissioning of equipment for the entire village will be finished by the end of October. Once the renovation is complete, households will no longer need to stockpile fuel or clean out furnace slag. They will be able to maintain constant indoor temperatures throughout their homes solely by relying on the rooftop solar installations.

Heating during the severe winter cold has long been a prominent livelihood challenge in Northeast China's rural areas. Relying solely on the traditional heated brick bed often left side rooms and main halls damp and chilly. During prolonged overcast or snowy weather, indoor temperatures would plummet, forcing the elderly and children to bundle up in thick clothes and huddle on the bed.

Previously, many clean heating solutions were either prone to failure in low temperatures or came with high electricity costs, making them difficult to promote widely in northern villages. Prior to this, a pilot project involving 270 households in Xinhu Town, Changchun's Jingyue High-tech Zone, validated that this extreme-cold-adapted solar thermal storage system can withstand temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius.

The R&D team spent three years tackling and overcoming two major issues with traditional solar heating: pipe freezing and cracking, and insufficient heat supply in low temperatures. The system is paired with off-peak electricity for auxiliary heating at night. Even during several consecutive sunless days, indoor temperatures can be stably maintained above 18 degrees Celsius. The equipment is compatible with the existing rural power grid, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for farmers.

A resident from the Jingyue pilot, Ms. Li, did the math: after the renovation, she no longer burns coal during the heating season, and the annual associated electricity cost is just over 800 yuan. The room temperature remains stable at around 20 degrees Celsius. "In the past, buying coal and preparing firewood for a whole winter cost nearly 2,000 yuan, and the house was filled with choking smoke and dust. Now it's clean and tidy. We don't have to get up in the middle of the night to tend the fire, making winter much more comfortable for the elderly and children."

The environmental benefits are also significant. Calculations show that a single-household system can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5.4 tons annually. The 270-household pilot project reduces carbon emissions by approximately 1,500 tons per year. Once all 15,000 households in Dehui are operational, annual carbon reduction is projected to exceed 80,000 tons. Satisfaction among pilot participants exceeds 98%.

This project is a vivid example of Jilin Province's "15th Five-Year Plan" for low-carbon energy transition being implemented in rural areas. In line with the province's overall energy deployment, local authorities are continuously advancing clean heating solutions for cold-climate rural areas, promoting complementary models using solar and electric energy, steadily reducing the use of loose coal in rural settings, and building a green heating system adapted to severe cold climates.

Supported by the province's "Land-based Three Gorges" project for renewable energy, Jilin's energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 3.2% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and installed renewable energy capacity surpassed 20 million kilowatts. This ample supply of new energy forms a solid industrial foundation for Dehui's solar heating renovation.

Many residents previously worried that the short winter daylight hours in Northeast China would make solar heating unreliable. This integrated solution for heat collection, storage, and freeze protection precisely addresses the heating shortcomings in extreme cold regions, positioning Changchun as one of the earlier cities in China to achieve large-scale implementation of solar heating in such climates. It establishes a replicable, scalable pathway for rural clean heating.

Currently, construction in Dehui's various townships is being carried out in staggered phases to make the most of the late-summer construction window, pushing hard to meet the end-of-October completion target. When winter snows arrive, the sight of smoke billowing from coal-burning chimneys in rural homes will be greatly diminished.

The clean heating renovation connects two vital aspects: the warmth and comfort of the people, and the path of green development. For farmers, it means no more stockpiling coal or stoking fires at midnight, enjoying constant, clean indoor temperatures. For the villages, it means a significant reduction in smoke and dust pollution and continuously improving air quality. For the province's low-carbon transition, the ten-thousand-household renovation in Dehui creates a model for green, people-centered heating in rural areas, using technological innovation to solve the long-standing problem of winter heating in Northeast China's countryside.

The warm summer sun shines on rows of solar thermal tubes atop farmhouses, continuously accumulating the heat energy needed to withstand the coming bitter cold. This livelihood project, rooted in the black soil, integrates low-carbon development into the everyday lives of ordinary people. It uses clean energy to safeguard warmth in rural winters, promoting the synergistic advancement of rural revitalization and the "dual carbon" goals.