CASE STUDY

Case Study



Case Study

Introduction

Two billion people in developing countries still lack access to modern energy services, according to the World Bank (1996). Some of these people will be served by grid connections during the next decade. So in the case of the young professional couple we recommend that they should go for a property which is based on modern energy services. Large numbers will remain unconnected because of the high costs of grid extensions in rural areas. Rural off-grid electrification can provide an alternative solution at lower cost, particularly as costs of off-grid technologies decline. And for off-grid applications, renewable energy technologies can reduce environmental impacts and provide lower-cost alternatives than conventional energy technologies (Foley, 1995; Cabraal et al 1996 and 1998; ESMAP 2000a and 2000b; Kaufman 2000).

Case Study

The young couple should consider the fact by looking at the many examples exist of both public programs and private-sector-led markets for off-grid electrification. Experience in a number of countries, particularly China, India, Kenya, Mexico, Senegal, and Sri Lanka, has been documented. So the young couple should keep this in their mind that modern energy services are important. For example, in India there has been a long-standing program of financial incentives for solar photovoltaics, which has resulted in 50,000 solar home systems and 30,000 solar street lights. In Mexico by early 1996, over 24,000 solar home systems had been installed under a government program, along with nearly 10,000 PV-based telephones. In Kenya, over 100,000 solar home systems have been installed by the private sector without much public assistance (Barnett 1990; GTZ 1996; Sokona 1997; Taylor 1997; van der Plas and Hankins 1998; Piscitello and Bogach 1998; Kammen 1999; Martinot et al 2000). Many public programs have relied on equipment donated through bilateral development assistance programs; only some have included sustainable mechanisms for servicing installations or continued commercial viability. Only a few programs employ public or private “fee-for-service” electricity providers that some consider conducive to sustainability. Noteworthy cases include a public energy-service company on the outer islands of Kiribati, a public-private energy-service company in the Comoros Islands, and a purely private-sector effort in the Dominican Republic (Hansen 1998; Gillet and Wilkins 1999; van der Plas 2000). But these models have been limited in geographic scope and have not been designed to provide universal coverage to rural populations. In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of regulated “energy-service concessions” and other public-private regulatory mechanisms as a way to provide affordable and universal electricity services to rural populations not connected to central electric power grids. Rural energy-service concessions may employ a mixture of energy sources to serve customers, including diesel generators, mini-hydro, photovoltaic, wind, and biomass. Installations may be household-scale systems (i.e., photovoltaic “solar home systems”) or village-scale “mini-grids” using a hybrid mixture of solar, wind, hydro, diesel, and battery storage (Reiche et al. 2000; Kaufman 2000).

Renewable energy—including biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind, tidal, and wave— offers tremendous benefits for meeting global energy ...