Renewable Energy Needs in Developing Countries: Barriers That Can Be Solved With Engineering

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. McCall Barger ◽  
Christopher A. Mattson
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Energy Information Administration ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Sustainable Technologies ◽  
Technical Performance

Access to electricity is one of the most essential requirements for development. Furthermore, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that growth in electricity use is projected to largely come from developing countries as defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, the transition to clean energy is occurring too slowly in rural parts of developing countries. Renewable energy provides the opportunity for sustainable energy to be provided to those living in rural areas of developing countries, who have not had access to clean energy. Renewable energy technology is necessary because traditional measures of energy access are not able to address the deficiencies in the affordability, reliability, and other barriers associated with renewable energy distribution. While there have been several successful rural electrification technologies in the past few years, sustainable technologies still have the potential to be unsuccessful if they fail to overcome the many barriers that stand in the way of energy progression in developing countries. Moreover, a product’s technical performance is not a sound indicator of how well that product will be adopted by users. This paper argues that technical and social barriers to renewable energy dissemination have not been surmounted due to a lack of innovation in terms of engineering solutions. Innovative “grid-free” engineering products can enable developing countries to avoid a possible industrial revolution while still growing their economy, since they are not hindered by an electricity grid. This paper identifies technical barriers to renewable energy development from the literature, and suggests possible innovations that can aid rural areas of developing countries in achieving electrification. The technology explored in this paper include super capacitors, a ground-air thermoelectric generator, and photovoltaic solar cells, which all have the potential to provide energy access to those living in less urbanized areas of developing countries.

Renewable energy potential for sustainable development in Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Ahmad Khalid Slimankhil ◽  
Mohammad Abed Anwarzai ◽  
Mir Sayed Danish ◽  
Mikaeel Ahmadi ◽  
Mohammad Hamid Ahadi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Geothermal Resources ◽  
The Sustainable Development

Afghanistan is one of the developing countries in South Asia with an enormous renewable and nonrenewable energy resources. Since 1893, utilization of secondary (modern) form of energy in Afghanistan has been pursued. The trends of sustainable energy provision have been reinforced after the post-conflicts in Afghanistan. The Sustainable Development Goal-7 (affordable and clean energy access) encourages nations to assess their resource development of renewable, affordable, and accessible energy. Unlike many developing countries that struggle to identify domestic sources of clean, sustainable energy, Afghanistan has hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal resources as assets. This literature review analyzes Afghanistan’s potential for renewable energy to identify obstacles and challenges like security, economics, and technology. Using surveys conducted by national and international organizations. This research evaluates Afghanistan’s progress in meeting SDG-7, identifies the main barriers for renewable energy development, and offers recommended solutions. This study reveals the facts of energy sector development in Afghanistan to enable students, researchers, and practitioners with an overview of the current situation and future direction of the energy sector. Also, this study offers a concise outlook for energy sector investors and donors at the national and international stages.

scholarly journals Renewable Energy based Green Power Generation for Rural Electrification

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 3904-3911
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Matlab Simulink

A major challenge for developing countries is access to electricity in rural area for accelerating its growth. There are significant impediment from the utilities to extend either improved service to the rural user or provide extended hours of supply through conventional grid supply. In developing countries, the most significant challenges are technologies used to upgrade and methods for electrification, which results in poor reliability of supply and high distribution losses, leading to hindering both economic and social development, so energy planners have suggested a hybrid energy system for the electrification of rural areas. This study investigates green energy based integrated generation for rural loads. This proposed system can orchestrate with the grid as well as with the renewable energy-based generator. The wind energy has a natural variance, to satisfy the energy demand during the nocturnal and overcast period a complementary renewable energy generator is critical, or an energy storage mechanism is needed to meet the energy demand. This type of pooled exploitation and interconnection is used to improve the reliability and resilience of the grids. The integration of distributed and clean energy resource like wind generation will reduce fossil fuel emissions and provides electricity in areas which are limitedly served by unified electrical infrastructure. Hence, it is expected to develop/modify technologies available for harnessing renewable energy sources. A MATLAB/Simulink is used to build a model for a grid-wind based integrated generation. Results obtained from MATLAB/Simulink are a close match with a practical system.

scholarly journals Leveraging Global Partnerships to Achieve SDG 7: A Case Study of Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalil Raza ◽  
Sardar MOHAZZAM ◽  
Saadia QAYYUM ◽  
Manzoor Hussain SOOMRO
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Global Environment Facility ◽  
The World ◽  
Sustainable Energy For All

Abstract Energy is fundamental to socio-economic growth for the world; but how this energy is generated and distributed would determine whether the world could achieve a sustainable future. There is no denying the fact that energy is one of the primary sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, addressing the climate crisis, sustainable energy lies at the core of both the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Paris Agreement. Among other goals, SDG 7 calls for affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 (UNDP, 2017). Globally, about 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity. The situation is more dire for clean cooking with about 2.8 billion people – 30% of the world’s population – lacking access (Sustainable Energy for All, 2020). The fact is that the energy use in developing countries would continue to increase (Catherine, Orie, & Paul, 2012). This growth could provide an opportunity for the deployment of renewable energy sources, as well as the creation of new, more efficient energy infrastructure. Unfortunately, for developing countries, the clean energy solutions are neither affordable nor accessible, even with the decline in the cost of renewable energy technologies. As a result, many global initiatives and partnerships, such as Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) have been established and working towards achieving this goal (Global Environment Facility (GEF), 2017). However, there is still a need to emphasize and reinforce this partnership to achieve the universal energy access by 2030. The world community has developed many platforms and financing mechanisms to transfer the resources from industrialized nations to developing countries, such as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under Kyoto protocol (UNFCCC, 2012). However, these mechanisms have not been really effective in encouraging investments in clean energy due to low carbon pricing. Hence, this necessitates for international community to come forward for the development of innovative assistance programs for developing nations by investing more resources to achieve SDG 7. Therefore, to accelerate the clean energy transition, global parternerhips and technological platforms will be needed to make clean energy investment economically competitive and viable. This work presents a case study on Pakistan’s response to achieve the SDG 7 under the UN global mission of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) program. It discusses the key milestones, barriers and lessons learnt on SDG 7. Based on the experiences of Pakistan, this work explores viable alternatives of financing mechanisms to accelerate sustainable energy. The paper concludes with key recommendations as to how global partnership could unleash the technological and financial opportunities in achieving ambitious and universal goals of sustainable energy.

scholarly journals Croatia's rural areas - renewable energy based electricity generation for isolated grids

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 731-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Protic ◽  
Robert Pasicko
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
The Public ◽  
Balkan States ◽  
Supply Systems

Several Western Balkan states face the consequences of the Yugoslavian war, which left hometowns with dilapidated electricity grid connections, a high average age of power plant capacities and low integration of renewable energy sources, grid bottlenecks and a lack of competition. In order to supply all households with electricity, UNDP Croatia did a research on decentralized supply systems based on renewable energy sources. Decentralized supply systems offer cheaper electricity connections and provide faster support to rural development. This paper proposes a developed methodology to financially compare isolated grid solutions that primarily use renewable energies to an extension of the public electricity network to small regions in Croatia. Isolated grid supply proves to be very often a preferable option. Furthermore, it points out the lack of a reliable evaluation of non-monetizable aspects and promotes a new interdisciplinary approach.

A Roadmap for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries Using MiViPPs (Microutility Virtual Power Plants)

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Pandey ◽  
Manish Chauhan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Rural Electrification ◽  
Virtual Power ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Virtual Power Plants

In this paper we present a road-map for rural electrification in developing countries by means of Renewable Energy based MiViPPs (Microutility virtual power plants). First and foremost a feasibility and viability analysis of the various upcoming and alternative renewable energy options is performed with respect to rural environmental constraints and demands. Renewable Energy based DDG’s (Decentralized Distributed Generation Units) offer the potential for affordable, clean electricity with minimal losses and effective maintenance and local cost recovery. But Independent DDG projects are fraught with their own issues mainly stemming from the unreliable and intermittent nature of the generated power and high costs. We propose an alternative approach to rural electrification which involves off grid DDG units operated at the local level taking advantage of feasible renewable energy technologies, which can effectively serve rural areas and reduce the urgency of costly grid extension. In MIVIPP model, a multitude of decentralized units (renewable energy based units and a non-renewable energy based unit for last mile backup) are centrally controlled and managed as part of an interconnected network, resulting into a virtual power plant that can be operated as a distributed power plant large enough to reliably serve all the local electricity demands in a cost effective manner. Finally, by a set of simulation results we establish how an automated MIVIPP (based on an Intelligent Auto Control System) effectively addresses all the issues pertaining to Dispersed DDG units by leveraging the scalability achieved by mutually augmenting the supplies from different Renewable Energy Based DDG units.

scholarly journals Overcoming local constraints when developing renewable energy systems for the electrification of remote areas in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Joseph Kenfack ◽  
Joseph Voufo ◽  
Paul Salomon Ngohe Ekam ◽  
Jeanine K. Lewetchou ◽  
Urbain Nzotcha
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Local Constraints ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Energy Plants

Sub Saharan Africa has a great renewable energy potential. Rural areas are suffering from poor energy access. Some systems designed to address this issue are still faced with some difficulties. Appropriate approaches and energy plant development will help remote areas to address the issue of electricity access. The current development of some micro hydro and micro solar energy plants is of poor quality and maintenance, sometimes resulting in failures. There are also some common mistakes made when promoting (designing) an energy system in an African environment. Identifying issues from local constraints and lessons learned will contribute to determining the appropriate sizing, technology and tools to correctly develop micro hydro and micro solar energy plants.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document