Renewable Energy in Developing Countries

Renewable Energy in Developing Countries

Introduction

Electricity not only improves the quality of life but also improves production that increase revenues and provide development benefits to the rural areas. Thus, although alternative energy cannot currently meet the needs of developing countries, it has the ability to meet the energy needs rural population's basic, lighting and entertainment. Moreover, it also helps in removing some of the barriers to energy development in rural areas. As funding for modern energy is limited by the social, technological, economic and policy of each country, access to modern energy in rural areas is a major challenge (Oliveira & Armando, 2007). It is estimated that support from national governments and international agencies to renewable energy technologies could facilitate the implementation of these technologies. Alternative energy such as wind energy, small scale hydropower generation, solar and biomass energy can help a great deal in the electrification of rural and remote areas especially in developing countries as those are the places where governments are usually fall short of conventional energy resources. But there are several cultural, political and technical issues which need to be considered when planning to implement renewable energy in rural areas (Sharma & Chen, 2009). For examples, considering that the systems connected to the network are less viable due to the high cost of implementation and operation as the extent to which a community moves away from the routes of transmission, the extension of the network is more costly. Another factor to consider, in order to achieve the introduction of renewable energy, is to know the conditions of the areas where it will be implemented and the ability of regional governments. At the local level, it is necessary to take into account the political culture, traditions and needs of each region. This paper aims to discuss some of the technical issues and technological developments related to the electrification of villages and remote areas particularly in Asia and Pacific regions where large proportion of the population live in rural areas with little or no electricity at all.

Discussion

According to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 1.600 million people worldwide lack access to electricity, (Food and Agriculture United, 2010). Moreover, access to modern energy was almost zero in the recent years. Many surveys shows that rural electrification plays a very important role in improving general living conditions and economic development of the inhabitants and the applications of electricity helps solve many problems such as child labor, gender inequality and migration in such areas (Touryan , 2012). Electricity not only improves the quality of life, but its productive use also increases the prospects of revenue generation which help the sustainable development of rural areas of developing countries in Asia and Pacific region. The main obstacles to electrification in these countries are more technical, because the technical solutions are now relatively well understood, either by extending the network or production of energy by a diesel mini-grid (Tan et al, 2009). On so-called renewable energies, the technical options such as small hydro, photovoltaic systems or wind generators are now commonplace, although ...