scholarly journals Policy perspectives on expanding cogeneration from bagasse in Malawi

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Seng To ◽  
Kingdom Kwapata ◽  
Leonard Masala ◽  
Virginia Alonso Navarro ◽  
Simon Batchelor ◽  
...  

Agro-industries have the potential to make a substantial contribution to sustainable energy supply in Africa, including energy access in rural areas. This paper focuses on the drivers and barriers to wider use of cogeneration from sugarcane bagasse in Malawi as there is a potential for the technology to enable access to electricity in rural areas. The paper gives an overview of the policy landscape for the energy sector and the sugar industry in Malawi. The research involved site visits, focus group discussions, and individual semi-structured interviews with participants from key government departments, businesses, research institutes and international agencies. It was found that energy sector reform, the proposed feed-in tariff for renewable energy, and risk are the key issues for investment in this area.Keywords: biomass, renewable energy, electricity

Author(s):  
Baseem Khan ◽  
Pawan Singh

Sub-Saharan nations are facing a lot of challenges for the planning of their future energy sector. Particularly, the rural areas of Sub-Saharan nations bear scarcity of energy access as there is a lack of grid facilities, less financial and technical support, pressure from foreign institutions, excess of energy export etc. Although Ethiopia is growing as a leader of energy sector in Sub-Saharan region, it is also facing numerous problems similar to other African nations. In this paper, authors have conducted a detailed study of Ethiopian power sector. This study includes the complete background and overview of current energy sector in Ethiopia. The key factors which affect the development of energy sector such as international energy export, policy framework, role of government and regulatory framework are also discussed. It is observed that there is a huge renewable energy potential in Ethiopia which is under utilized, and can be used as a major resource for rural energy access. The authors recommend that a new policy framework and subsidies for renewable energy generation, motivational awareness, technical training, improvement in organizational efficiency and managerial skills, arrangement of financial instruments for new projects and easy ICTs based mobile banking programme should be initiated as well as improved to achieve sustainable growth, and 100% energy access by increasing renewable energy production.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Joseph Kenfack ◽  
Joseph Voufo ◽  
Paul Salomon Ngohe Ekam ◽  
Jeanine K. Lewetchou ◽  
Urbain Nzotcha

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.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Djiby Racine Thiam

The desire to increase energy access remains a strong driving force for poverty alleviation in rural areas of developing countries. The supply of modern energy facilitates the improvement of human living conditions and the productivity of sectors. It also contributes by reducing the time spent, mainly for women and children, in collecting biomass and therefore can provide an opportunity for an increase in the education level of children and for women empowerment. This paper shows how renewable energy facilitates the improvement of the standard of living in a Sahelian developing country of Senegal. Using a life-cycle-cost approach while integrating an assessment of the environmental externalities, I argue that in remote rural areas where grid-connection is non-existent, photovoltaic (PV) renewable technologies provide suitable solutions for delivering energy services although wind technology has been considered as well. In this framework, policies promoting the adoption of clean technologies in developing nations like Sen-egal could be considered as being the main components on the agenda of poverty reduction.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
De-Graft Owusu-Manu ◽  
David Mensah Sackey ◽  
Dickson Osei-Asibey ◽  
Rachelle Kyerewah Agyapong ◽  
David John Edwards

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges in improving women's energy access, rights and equitable sustainable development from a Ghanaian perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilizes a mixed method. A qualitative in-depth exploratory design was chosen to understand how gender is mainstreamed within Ghana's energy sector. This included semi-structured interviews with key managers, experience policy experts and focus groups. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis (TCA).FindingsThe study reveals that the National Energy Policy of 2010, as the main energy policy regulating the energy sector in Ghana, does make provision for gender equality, safety especially women, in line with Ghana's sustainable development goals. The energy policy aims to empower women and create gender parity in the sector. Nevertheless, the study also found major challenges to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector, including poor analysis in formulating energy policies, inadequate financial resources, and poor monitoring and evaluation.Originality/valueThe paper exposes gender equity challenges associated with the energy sector in Ghana. It also offers a new policy angle which connects gender mainstreaming to sustainable development. The research describes how women are included in developing energy policies and in addressing gender challenges in the energy sector.


2022 ◽  
pp. 76-95
Author(s):  
Innocent Simphiwe Nojiyeza

The aim of this chapter is to explain the challenges of decentralisation and management of water as economic good principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in Malawi in the rural areas of Ntcheu, Balaka, and Mangochi. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, community meetings, and observation of water points were conducted. It was established that households and other state institutions prefer to receive services from Mpira-Balaka Water Users Association, which subsidizes households, rather than Southern Regional Water Board, which operates along commercial lines. The chapter questions the focus in the implementation of IWRM, which remain the establishment and fixing of decentralised institutions whilst recognising water as an economic good.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-112
Author(s):  
Vecky C. Poekoel ◽  
Riecky Poekoel ◽  
Jane I. Litouw ◽  
Sherwin R.U.A. Sompie ◽  
Reynold F. Robot ◽  
...  

The world energy crisis from non-renewable fossil energy sources greatly impacts the electricity sector. Meanwhile energy is needed to ensure food security is estimated at 38 percent of the energy consumed in the food system. Agrifood systems require renewable energy, access to modern energy services in rural areas, technology related to climate-smart agriculture. Hybrid technology makes it possible, we combine several new and renewable energy sources to save electricity more effectively and efficiently. Able to manage the shifting period of any renewable energy source in hybrid energy by the control system. In this case, each of these new renewable energies can be arranged based on their respective existence. With the existence of a power plant with renewable energy in the form of hybrid energy, it can also facilitate farmers in terms of electricity sources because in the most recent agriculture there is no electricity installed. With this method farmers can process the natural products they have easily, and are cost-effective.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Khalid Slimankhil ◽  
Mohammad Abed Anwarzai ◽  
Mir Sayed Danish ◽  
Mikaeel Ahmadi ◽  
Mohammad Hamid Ahadi

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Bikila Ayele Suyum

Development projects are often resulted in massive displacement and resettlement of people. Despite the gradual improvement in resettlement practices and results, the impoverishments caused by development projects’ displacement and resettlement are still widely observed in many developing countries. This study is intended to investigate the key issues facing resettlement practices based on experiences from households displaced by railway corridor construction in Dukem area, central Ethiopia. Data were collected by using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and archival file reviews. The study has revealed that policy, legal and practical factors were constraining effective resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced households. The study indicates that the existing Ethiopian policy and legal frameworks on resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced people in the context of development projects were not effectively implemented in the study population context. The practice of valuation, compensation and expropriation were not fair and satisfactory mainly due to lack of objective criteria of evaluation, lack of technically competent valuation experts and widespread corruption in valuation and compensation of properties. The existing policy and legal frameworks on resettlement and rehabilitation of evicted people also lacks a clear statement on the livelihood rehabilitation of displaced households. The current compensation practice is monetary-based, inadequate, delayed and the rehabilitation approach lacks special consideration for vulnerable groups. Therefore, the researcher recommends the need for devising policy, legal and institutional frameworks which have clear provisions on how to deal with the multifaceted problems of displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation. Additionally, ensuring effective reform to the structures of implementing agents of resettlement is very important.


Author(s):  
Satya Widya Yudha ◽  
Benny Tjahjono ◽  
Philip Longhurst

The study describes in this paper uses direct evidence from processes applied for the developing economy of Indonesia, as it defines the trajectory for its future energy policy and energy research agenda. The paper makes explicit the process undertaken by key stakeholders in assessing and determining the suitability, feasibility and dynamics of the renewable energy sector. Barriers and enablers that key in selecting the most suitable renewable energy sources for developing economies for the renewable energy development have been identified from extensive analyses of research documents alongside qualitative data from the focus group discussions (FGD). The selected FGD participants encompass the collective views that cut across the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental aspects of renewable energy development in Indonesia. The information gained from the FGD gives insights to the outlook and challenges that are central to energy transition within the country, alongside the perceptions of renewable energy development from the influential stakeholders contributing to the process. It is notable that the biggest barriers to transition are centred on planning and implementation aspects, as it is also evident that many in the community do not adhere to the same vision.


Author(s):  
K. McCall Barger ◽  
Christopher A. Mattson

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.


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