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What energy systems are appropriate for poor villagers?

Renewable energy projects in rural communities have often failed to achieve positive results. Evaluations of such projects are rarely done. Energy expansion in remote rural areas is not proving reliable or sustainable in the long term. What can be done to help communities work with specialists and policy-makers to use renewable energy technology (RET) to fight poverty?

A report from Imperial College London draws out lessons from a collaborative research initiative – The Renewable Energy for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (RESURL) project – undertaken with partners in Colombia, Cuba and Peru. Evaluations of RET schemes addressed technical, non-technical and policy factors of their failure and success in 33 remote rural communities in the three countries.

RESURL researchers found that users of alternative energy projects were very dissatisfied. Schemes to provide off-grid electricity have generally had disappointing results. Data on how RET affects people’s lives and poverty is very little, but it is clear that there is a massive inconsistency between technology’s potential and its actual impact on people’s lives and incomes:

Potential users are not made aware of the range of technology options or the environmental impact of energy development.
Technological equipment does not last long due to lack of community capacity to maintain complex equipment; when equipment stops functioning external assistance is not available.
Doing too much too soon has resulted in unrealistic expectations and constant equipment failure.
When micro-hydro projects are set up, very few local people understand how they work.

Peru and Colombia are committed to expanding photovoltaic (PV) technology, which converts sunlight into electricity, to rural areas for domestic use. However, distribution of PVs, as in other countries, is undertaken without appraising the social, economic, environmental and technical conditions prevailing in potential communities. Batteries provided to communities have been off low-quality.

An estimated two billion people worldwide live in communities which are not electrified. Energy provision to rural areas, particularly through off-grid renewable energy systems can reduce the electricity gap in rural parts of the developing world. Realising this potential requires undertaking RET only after determining the technical potential and costs involved and, just as importantly, users’ demands and prospects for future sustainability.

RESURL has developed software capable of doing so – evaluating the linkages between poverty reduction and energy infrastructure improvement and identifying appropriate, effective and sustainable energy solutions for poverty reduction. The Sustainable Rural Energy Decision-Support System for Rural Energy (SURE):

scientifically evaluates purely technical considerations of designs, of both off-grid and grid-connected energy schemes, while also incorporating a community’s assets, demands and priorities within the model
calculates a community’s assets and evaluates technology costs and resource availability of power combinations
measures the potential effects that particular energy combinations may have on physical, financial, natural, social and human community assets
evaluates each energy alternative against new indicators designed for each of five community capitals/assets: natural, physical, human, social and financial
enables communities, technicians and policy-makers to develop an ideal community baseline, where all the assets are fully and equally developed.

Access to energy can significantly improve users’ well-being but unless a strong institutional and policy framework is in place, gains are short-lived. Technologies currently being developed will end up with the same problems as previous interventions unless appropriate information systems such as SURE are made available to users and decision-makers. Readily understood manuals should also be further developed to help communities understand how to repair renewable energy equipment.

Source(s):
‘Renewable energy for sustainable rural livelihoods – RESURL’ by Judith A. Cherni, Imperial College London, August 2004

Funded by: DFID R8018

id21 Research Highlight: 29 April 2005

Further Information:
Judith A. Cherni
Environmental Policy and Management Group
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London SW7 2AZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)207 5947316
Fax: +44 (0)207 5949304
Contact the contributor: j.cherni@imperial.ac.uk

Environmental Policy and Management Group, Imperial College, London, UK

Imperial College London, UK

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