Subhes C Bhattacharyya

University of Surrey

This paper provides an overview of the debate on energy access and development, and argues that despite some progress in enhancing energy access, the programmes promoting energy access are neither sustainable nor adequately contributing to development. The paper substantiates this argument by considering the experience of energy access and by perfo...

India is a large nation state facing the twin challenges of economic development and the need to transition away from its path dependence on coal towards a low-carbon infrastructure. By applying corpus linguistics to a sampled literature on decarbonising India's transport sector, we explore three motifs of difference, viz. ‘change’, ‘decarbonisatio...

This paper evaluates the potential for reconfiguring city-scale clean water demand by reducing the non-residential asset sanitsation water footprint. A novel methodological framework is proposed for assessing the feasibility of a mix of three surface sanitisation measures (Manual surface wiping, Mechanical cleaning/Rapid disinfectant spraying, Ultr...

Cities are increasingly adopting potentially sustainable climate plans. Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into these plans could help stabilize the climate while generating jobs, narrowing equity gaps, fostering innovation, and delivering other sustainability benefits. Yet, how much cities are integrating the SDGs into climate pl...

Abstract In Sri-Lanka, due to climate change, most of the rural villages have difficulty accessing clean water. With the United Nations (UN) initiatives set in 2015 to Transform the world by 2030, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are set to tackle multiple challenges humankind is facing to ensure economic prosperity and environmental protect...

Access to modern energy is a social and economic priority to rural population and policy-makers because of its direct socio economic and environmental benefits, as well as the indirect benefits of energy as an important input factor to growth and the Sustainable Development Goals. In this sense, renewable technologies offer the option to provide ac...

Renewable energy-based off-grid projects have played a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s universal electrification effort. The paper, in this context, unravels two crucial and quite interrelated aspects of decentralised off-grid electrification in the country: a) it critically analyses the off-grid electricity sector development and assesses its contribu...

There is an increasing focus on sustainable energy in developing countries as part of their transition to low carbon economy. Approximately, 40% of the world's population, mostly in low-and middle-income countries, do not have access to modern energy. Developing countries including Nigeria are facing energy poverty. Small and medium-sized enterpris...

Buildings consume 40% of resources around the world, low energy building is fast becoming a major component of sustainable development. However, limiting the concept of low energy buildings to new builds will only undermine its effects and benefits as there are numerous existing buildings that consume uneconomical energy resources irrespective of h...

As 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity globally, the challenge of ensuring universal electricity access in accordance with the Sustainable Energy for All initiative remains herculean. This chapter maps policy linkages, identifies the gaps in policies and recommends options for developing the enabling environment. The chapter suggests that...

The purpose of this knowledge paper is to present a review of literature on the nexus between grid and off-grid electrification options and the enabling conditions to support each option. Through a thorough review of available academic and practice-oriented literature, this paper provides a synthesis and interpretation of the grid and off-grid elec...

The Niger Delta oil and gas infrastructures are under severe threat of climate change impacts exacerbated by frequent flood activities, rising temperature, surging Atlantic tides, persistent heavy rainfall, and windstorms. This requires sustainable adaptation mechanisms to cope with vulnerabilities, but experts are challenged with the scale of vuln...

Despite significant grid expansion during the last decade, globally India has the highest number of people lacking access to electricity. Mini-grid has been suggested as a possible electrification option and the new mini-grid policy of the state of Uttar Pradesh has attracted global attention. Relatedly, the drive for grid extension restricts off-g...

Background Community-owned solar mini-grids (SMGs) are increasingly promoted to provide communities access to reliable electricity, empowering local actors as they become active stakeholders in projects. However, early failures and difficulties in building local capacity have raised questions regarding their long-term sustainability and ability to...

The impacts of climate change arising from flooding, the intrusion of high saline tidewater, rising temperature, wind storms, and rising Atlantic level are exacerbating significant threats to oil and gas critical installations in the Niger Delta. Understanding the hierarchies of vulnerable critical infrastructure could help assets managers in the i...

Community managed solar micro-grids have the potential to provide reliable and affordable energy access to remote villages in India http://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2018/05/04/solar-micro-grids-can-enable-sustainable-rural-living/

Climate change extreme weather events such as flood, rising temperature and windstorms pose significant threats to oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger. Due to a gap in evaluation of assets exposure in the region, little is known about their level of exposure hierarchies. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to evaluate the ex...

The lack of access to electricity of more than 1.1 billion people around the world remains a major developmental challenge and Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as well as Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) have set a target of universal electrification by 2030. Various studies have identified mini-grid-based electrification as a p...

This edited volume presents a comprehensive review of energy sector developments in Asia over the past 3 decades. Written by energy specialists from all over the world, the book focuses on demand and supply, energy access, renewable and non-renewable energy sources, policies related to sector reform and the environment and Asia's low carbon transit...

This chapter presents a review of energy poverty situation in Asia, with a particular emphasis on South Asia. Lack of access to electricity and clean cooking energy is presented, followed by a summary of initiatives being taken in the region to address the challenge. Examples of successful and not-so-successful initiatives are then discussed to hig...

Off-grid rural and remote area electrification through decentralized renewable hybrid mini-grids (HMG) has been prioritized in the recent national renewable energy policy of Bangladesh. Research was carried out to explore the actual customer willingness to pay (WTP) for the electricity to be supplied by such HMGs, while considering a wide spectrum...

The exploitation of hydro resources for generating electricity at cheaper cost gives rise to significant economic rent to owners. Cameroon, which has a great hydropower potential is engaged in developing the resources. Thus, the main goal of this study is to calculate the potential economic rent that could be generated in the Cameroonian hydropower...

Energy security constitutes a major challenge for Jordan’s sustainable development. Space heating in Jordan represents ~61% of total residential energy consumption and dominantly involves portable un-flued kerosene and LPG stoves. Fuel combustion of such heaters generates poor indoor air quality and emits GHGs. Moreover, recent housing condition su...

With more than one billion people lacking access to electricity in the world, ensuring universal access to electricity by 2030 remains a major challenge which cannot be left to the government initiatives alone. Access to local information and identification of potential areas for investment can be a challenge for investors. This paper provides a to...

Lack of access to electricity in rural areas hinders productive activities, which in turn affects sustainable rural development. Off-grid electrification options can offer an alternative but in order to develop productive uses of electricity in off-grid area, a detailed study of livelihoods and potential areas for improvement in the value chain is...

As 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity globally, the challenge of ensuring universal electricity access in accordance with the Sustainable Energy for All initiative remains herculean. This chapter maps policy linkages, identifies the gaps in policies and recommends options for developing the enabling environment. The chapter suggests that...

Abstract: Lack of access to energy is considered as a serious bottleneck for the socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Despite earning recognition for promoting solar home systems, most of the rural areas and remote islands of the country still remain non-electrified due to very high unit cost and low quality of electricity from solar home syst...

With 1.2 billion people still lacking electricity access by 2013, electricity access remains a major global challenge. Although mini-grid based electrification has received attention in recent times, their full exploitation requires policy support covering a range of areas. Distilling the experience from a five year research project, OASYS South As...

Dhaka, one of the fastest growing cities in the world has around 500 shopping centres, which use unstable electricity supply from the national grid. A medium size shopping centre having 50 shops consumes about 320kWh every day during the daytime business hours between 8am to 5pm. This study proposes a sustainable alternative to replace fossil fuel...

Access to modern energy is a social and economic priority to rural population and policy-makers because of its direct socio economic and environmental benefits, as well as the indirect benefits of energy as an important input factor to growth and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this sense, renewable technologies offer the option to pro...

Providing basic minimum energy services has become a real challenge for developing countries of the world. India encounters the problem of provisioning basic minimum electricity services to a section of her population. Renewable energy-based decentralised systems have emerged as a viable electrification option for many developing countries of the w...

This chapter introduces the electricity access challenge and presents the decentralized approach to electrification of rural areas in developing countries. It then provides an overview of the content of the book.

As energy plays a vital role in the modern lifestyle of any country, understanding how sustainable the energy system of a country remains an important policy issue. This paper reviews the comprehensiveness of existing metrics in tracking and tracing energy sustainability and finds that the existing multi-dimensional indicators do not capture the su...

Off-Grid energy systems are growing in popularity as an independent source of energy to satisfy electricity needs of individual households or smaller communities, mainly in developing countries where the main grid is either not developed or the grid is uneconomical to extend due to remoteness of the location. The Isle of Eigg in Scotland has been s...

This provides a summary of presentations made at the Smart Grid symposium organised as part of the Global Innovation Initiative project.

This book provides a summary of outputs from the research carried out on off-grid electrification in South Asia. The lessons from the studies are first presented, followed by a set of policy recommendations. Overall, the project finds and demonstrates that off-grid electrification can be an appropriate option for remote areas. However, no single so...

Providing basic minimum energy services has become a real challenge for developing countries. Renewable energy-based decentralised off-grid systems preferably renewable mini-grids are found to be one of the suitable options for electrification, particularly for rural and remote areas of a country. This study explores the replication and scaling-up...

India’s recent macro-economic and structural changes are transforming the economy and bringing significant changes to energy demand behaviour. Life-style and consumption behaviour are evolving rapidly due to accelerated economic growth in recent times. The population structure is changing, thereby offering the country with the potential to reap the...

Globally 2.6 billion people, representing around 38% of the total population depend on solid biomass fuels to meet their basic energy needs for cooking. While rural communities are shifting to modern fuels such as LPG and electrical energy for cooking, the International Energy Agency estimates that in the absence of new policies, the number of peop...

Almost 77 million households in India were living without electricity in 2011 and more than 836 million people do not have access to modern cooking fuels. Such a situation continues to exist despite several initiatives and policies to support rural energy efforts by the government. This paper examines the trends of rural energy programs in India an...

In dealing with the climate change externality of the fossil-fuel dominated transport sector, bio-fuels are widely seen as a solution. Through its Bioenergy Policy, Ghana seeks to improve oil supply security, save foreign exchange, create jobs and reduce emissions from the transport sector by integrating 20% biofuels into the transport fuel mix by...

This paper presents a local level study of a village off-grid system in Bangladesh. It applies an integrated methodology that identifies the demand in the off-grid village context using alternative scenarios. The techno-economic analysis of the optimal off-grid system architecture is then presented using HOMER software. Three energy resources are c...

India, as a rising economic power, has undergone significant macro‐economic and structural changes in recent decades. The accelerated economic growth in recent times has brought wide‐ranging changes in life styles and behaviors of its growing population. At the same time, the population is undergoing a structural change and as this continues in the...

Rice husk-based electricity generation and supply has been popularised in South Asia by the Husk Power Systems (HPS) and the Decentralised Energy Systems India (DESI), two enterprises that have successfully provided electricity access using this resource. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the conditions under which a small-scale rural power s...

Although rural electrification using mini-grids has attracted recent global attention, the concept has been there for quite some time. Consequently, a number of analytical approaches exist to support the decision-making process. This chapter first provides a review of literature dealing with analytical frameworks for off-grid and mini-grid based el...

This paper employs two-stage input–output structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to identify the factors responsible for changes in Japan’s CO2 emissions for two periods: 1995–2000 and 2000–2005. First, the study decomposes the total change in CO2 emissions for each period to obtain the contribution of change in CO2 emissions per unit output (CO2...

This chapter provides a review of alternative off-grid electrification options in South Asia. It covers four elements: the technical dimension, business models, regulatory governance and sustainability dimension of off-grid solutions. It concludes that in order to go beyond lighting applications, more careful consideration and investigation is requ...

This chapter presents a local-level study of a village off-grid system in Bangladesh. Using the recent census information and household survey information, the study presents the current status of rural electrification in Bangladesh and indicates the characteristics of rural energy use. It then applies an integrated methodology that identifies the...

The off-grid electrification business in general and mini-grids in particular face investment as well as commercial challenges arising from, among others, locational disadvantage, limited customer base, poor paying capacity and ambiguous business environment. This chapter provides an overview of the business environment and discusses the financial...

As South Asia is a major producer of rice, this chapter analyses the financial viability of rice husk-based power generation in South Asia. The chapter first presents the business models of Husk Power Systems (HPS) and Decentralised Energy Systems India (DESI Power), two enterprises that have successfully provided electricity access by generating p...

Although off-grid electrification has become a cost-effective and convenient option for many non-electrified areas, generally stand-alone individual options receive greater attention; and when mini-grid-based solutions are considered, traditionally a single technology-based limited level of supply is often considered, without paying attention to re...

Providing access to electricity to a large section of rural population in Nepal has traditionally been a challenging exercise. This has been exacerbated by difficult geography, poor-socio-economic profile of rural Nepal and moreover by the on-going energy crisis. This chapter conducts an objective assessment of the renewable energy-based off-grid e...

This chapter provides a review of alternative off-grid electrification options in South Asia. It covers four elements: the technical dimension, business models, regulatory governance, and sustainability options of off-grid solutions. It concludes that in order to go beyond lighting applications, more careful consideration and investigation is requi...

This chapter provides a brief review of linkages between energy, environment and development.

Renewable energy-based off-grid or decentralised electricity supply has traditionally considered a single technology-based limited level of supply to meet the basic needs, without considering reliable energy provision to rural consumers. The purpose of this paper is to propose the best hybrid technology combination for electricity generation from a...

This chapter introduces the mini-grid option as a decentralised approach to electrification of rural areas in developing countries. It also provides an overview of the content of the book.

As off-grid electrification receives global attention in the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, the role of regulation for this alternative form of electricity delivery requires a careful investigation. This paper asks whether the activity has to be regulated or not. It then tries to find out where regulation can be used and what type of regula...

As the Indian economy has abandoned the traditional ‘Hindu’ growth rate for a faster economic growth path in recent years, major changes to the traditional Indian way of life are emerging. The rapidly growing Indian population, accelerating rate of urbanization, growing size of the middle class and an increasing level of integration of the country...

This chapter provides an overview of the debate on energy access and development. The present status of energy access is discussed first. The chapter then analyzes the economic and policy issues related to energy access and argues that there has been a disproportionate emphasis on electrification in the past, which alone cannot resolve the energy a...

This chapter provides a review of electrification experience from the African continent by focusing on a selected set of country experiences from Sub-Saharan Africa. The review captures the diversity and similarities of approaches adopted by the countries in this continent and contrasts the successful examples of South Africa and Ghana with other S...

This chapter outlines regulatory issues related to off-grid electrification. It first asks whether the sector has to be regulated or not. It then tries to find out where regulation can be used and what type of regulation is appropriate. The chapter considers different types of delivery options and tries to map service functions and regulatory optio...

This chapter provides a review of financing mechanisms used for energy access in general and off-grid electrification in particular. It reviews the literature on the subject and tries to find answers to issues like whether the funding has been adequate, whether sufficient funding for the future is likely to be available, whether states should take...

China, despite her billion-plus population and vast geographical coverage, has successfully achieved almost universal electrification (IEA 2009). The purpose of this chapter is to present the Chinese approach to rural electrification and to identify whether China provides lessons for other countries. An extensive literature review forms the basis o...

This chapter provides a review of rural electrification with an emphasis on off-grid electrification in South-East Asia and South America. Both the regions have successfully enhanced electricity access and many countries of these regions have achieved near universal electrification. The experience from these regions and the contrasting approaches a...

This chapter provides a final synthesis of the outcome of the book and presents the concluding remarks. The slow progress of electricity access and the developmental consequences of lack of access to electricity clearly highlight the need for sustaining concerted global efforts to ensure a better future. The different chapters of this book captured...

This paper provides a review of funding needs and financing mechanisms for energy access in general and off-grid electrification in particular to find whether the funding for these activities has been adequate, whether sufficient funding is likely to be available to meet the needs of universal energy access, whether innovative approaches can be use...

Part 1 Overview of experiences.- Off-grid electrification experience from South Asia.- Off-grid electrification experience from outside South Asia.- The Chinese model rural electrification and electricity access.- Part 2 Technology Choices, Participatory Approaches and Financing.- Technology choices for off-grid electrification.- Participatory mode...

The economic and infrastructural disparities between the rural and urban communities of most developing countries in general and in terms of energy access in particular are quite glaring. China presents a good example of a developing country that has successfully embarked on rural electrification projects over the last few decades and achieved a gr...

This paper investigates the integration of renewable electricity into the UK system in 2020. The purpose is to find the optimal wind generation that can be integrated based on total cost of supply. Using Energy Plan model and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) energy projections as inputs, this paper simulates the total cost of elec...

Off-grid electrification is gaining importance in the developing countries where the access to electricity is often limited. The purpose of this paper is to review alternative methodologies that are used for off-grid electrification projects to identify the features of each methodological approach and to present their strengths and weaknesses. The...

This chapter provides an introduction to the economic concepts related to fossil fuel supply. The chapter presents a typical chain of activities in the fossil fuel supply, namely exploration, development and production and discusses the relevant economic decision-making issues for each activity. It also considers the influence of government interve...

This chapter introduces the specific features of the natural gas market and shows why the industry has developed in a different way than the oil industry. It then indicates the efforts being made in transforming the regional markets into a global market. The economics of the gas market relevant to the developed and the developing countries is also...

This chapter introduces the issues related to energy-related investments and presents the economic arguments to analyse such issues. The presentation focuses on the global, cross-cutting issues on investment without specific focus on a particular country. It presents an overview of the investment needs and present main issues affecting investment a...

This chapter introduces the concepts related to the regulation of energy industries. It first presents the traditional regulation, followed by the modern concepts of regulation (incentive regulation). The pros and cons of each alternative is discussed as well.

This chapter discusses the reform and restructuring of energy industries and presents the issues related to these structural changes in the energy industry. The chapter starts with a discussion about the economic rationale for government intervention in the energy sector, and the changes that weakened these arguments. Alternative reform models are...

This chapter introduces the economics of renewable energy supply. It covers the economics of renewable electricity supply and that of bio-fuels and presents the commonly used support mechanisms. The concerns for level-playing field for renewable energies and the cost barriers are also discussed.

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the well-developed economic literature on depletion of non-renewable energies and its effect on energy supply. The chapter first presents a diagrammatic analysis followed by a more formal analysis. The link between the empirical evidence and the theoretical literature is also presented.

This chapter focuses on the economic issues related to energy security concerns. Issues related to energy security have resurfaced in recent times due to concerns about fossil fuel depletion, threats to infrastructure and possibilities of disruption due to inadequate investments in infrastructure or market manipulation by market players. This has b...

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the various issues that the energy sector is facing. It introduces the idea of energy transition, takes a look at the changing trend in energy demand and supply and identifies a number of issues that require a better understanding.

This chapter provides an introduction to the economic concepts related to the electricity sector. It introduces the key concepts related to the electricity supply industry (such as load duration curve, capacity factor, and load diversity) and provides simple decision-making tools such as merit order dispatch, levelised costs and screening curves th...

Any discussion on energy pricing or appropriate pricing of energy goods and services invokes a passionate debate due to the pervasive nature of energy use and the socio-economic and political implications of energy pricing. Energy consumers at the receiving end of pricing bear the direct consequences of pricing policies, especially so when the dema...

This chapter introduces the industries of the energy sector and presents the basic concepts related to energy. It also introduces the energy accounting framework that provides a consistent basis for energy-related information for statistical analysis. The chapter discusses the data-related issues and indicates how the information presented in the e...

This chapter focuses on the issue of high energy prices and their impacts on the economy. As the impact would be different for the importing and exporting countries, this chapter considers them separately. The purpose of this chapter is to explain the economic dimension of the problem and discusses the policies that can be taken to improve the situ...