Energy at the Local Scale

Emerging economies are facing various energy challenges. One is meeting the needs of billions of people lacking access to energy services. Second is to be a part of the global transition to develop safe, clean and low carbon energy systems to meet the local needs. The other challenges are to understand the gender based, social, cultural and political norms of the local areas in these countries. All this needs to be implemented at an accelerated rate to meet the growing demand in these countries.  Thus energy at the local level has also to be need driven, satisfying the local consumer and efficient enough to effectively meet this long list of challenges.

The goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these economies may be aligned with the pursuit of other energy-related objectives, such as developing indigenous renewable resources and reducing local forms of pollution. In general, the costs of most forms of renewable energy have declined substantially in recent decades. In the early 1990s, only hydropower was competitive with electricity generated by conventional power plants for on-grid applications. However, expanding markets and experience-proven cost reductions have since made wind and geothermal power competitive or nearly competitive with other, conventional sources. In dispersed, off-grid applications, intermittency may pose less of a problem and renewable technologies may be more cost-effective than the next available conventional option. In addition, the modularity of many renewable energy technologies facilitates their deployment in relatively small increments.  This can be advantageous in cost and risk to many developing countries.

Involvement of rural cooperatives for PV electricity by the world renound Grameen Bank of Bangladesh is a motivating case study for providing clean access to electricity. In 1996 it established a non-profit subsidiary – Grameen Shakti to administer loans for photovoltaic solar home systems to serve those who had no access to electricity. It found that long distances, poor transport infrastructure, periodically flooded and impassable roads, low literacy rates, lack of technical skills and transactions based on barter contributed to high transaction costs and difficulty in building consumer confidence in their product. In 1998, a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant enabled to offer improved credit terms to its customers and install thousands of systems (G8, RETF, 2001)

Governments, NGOs, Inter-governmental organizations and other funding agencies need to cover the following in their policy agenda for energy resources at local level in developing countries:

-       Adopting and promoting at least the minimum energy standards for construction, basic appliances and vehicles. This will require re-direction of energy subsidies.

-       Researching and sustainably developing acceptable indigenous renewable energy resources through effective transfer of technology from developed countries. This would also need building of human and institutional capacity needed to support the process.

Energy, Poverty and Development

Energy systems of any country play a significant role in poverty alleviation and subsequent development if they are emphatically pro-poor. People in rural areas need an affordable access to cleaner forms of energy in agriculture, water, sanitation, transportation, food and fuel. Energy in developing countries has a social impact and is required for the basic living of lower-income (agriculture based) and middle-income categories of population. It is essential to sustain life because people need to cook, maintain basic health standards, need heat in cold weather and light to perform their basic day-to-day tasks.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen relates the concept of freedom to development. Political, economic, social, transparencies and protective security are the instrumental freedoms he discusses appropriately. But do the poor in developing countries even understand the existence of these types of freedom or even know how to reach out to acquire them? The amount of time spent by young girls to collect fuel wood or get clean water from miles away leaves them with no time to enjoy the basic right to education even if it is provided for free by the state. On the other hand if clean forms of energy exist, the business community levies hefty charges on its access so that there is no political pressure to provide them to the poor. For instance heavy charges on initial electricity installation confine its supply only to the urban population who are more profitable high-income electricity consumers for the provider as compared to the poor. This leads to a vicious cycle unaffordable access leading to poverty and poverty not allowing access to energy thus hindering development.

Developing countries need continuous innovation and high volume production of low-cost energy and related instruments to make it possible for cleaner energy to reach the poor. This is significant to alleviate poverty and ensure economic and social growth. The Global Energy Assessment report of the IIASA rightly puts it -  “Improved low-cost cook stoves reduce the amount of fuel used, which translates into direct cash savings. They also reduce respiratory health problems associated with smoke emission from traditional biomass stoves offer a better home and working environment. Other benefits include the alleviation of the burden placed on women and children in fuel collection, freeing up more time for women to engage in other activities, especially income generating endeavors.”

Measuring energy poverty across different states within a developing nation should also be made a part of the freedoms concept Sen has presented. Rural areas of some states may have access to cleaner energy that makes them developed states as compared to others within the same country (e.g. Kerala in India). Lessons in the areas of energy from such states may be learnt and replicated to others for a faster access leading to economic development of the country as a whole. Question may be - how to measure energy poverty effectively to resolve the problems created by it?