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An overview of Afghanistan's trends toward renewable and sustainable energies
Abstract
Relentless environmental concerns, steep hike in fossil fuel price, and increasing demand of non-renewable fossil fuels consumption have dramatically increased global search for alternative energies. The world requests ever growing energy supplies to sustain economic development and improvement. Renewable and sustainable energy ever more becoming accepted and established a decisive place in energy system of the word due to ecologically responsive insight and a decrease in equipment expenses. Consistent with its endowment of energy resources, each country tried to figure out its own energy portfolio and employing technologies, which are economically viable and socially equitable, and have minimal adverse impacts. This article attempts to review all possible renewable energy sources as a substitute of the current energy profile (coal, natural gas, and petroleum) in Afghanistan. The study found Afghanistan power sector as one of the least development sector which its inadequate status is preventing the development of the country as well. Even though, the energy is not the only panacea, but cost effective energies in abundant quantity and quality on sustainable foundation will help to reach to demand socio-economic development. The results indicate that Afghanistan due to its natural and geographical situations enjoys important prospective for renewable energy bases such as solar, wind, geothermal and micro hydro power. Renewable energies could offer the ultimate solution for Afghanistan in general, and rural areas in actual. But, switch to altered forms of energy is grounded in multifaceted interactions. The study indicates number of issues such as great upfront charges, absence of providers, insufficient funding appliances, and feebleindorsed and methodological capability overwhelm and affected the use of renewable energies and technologies in Afghanistan. However, with sufficient investment and practical stages by government, and non government agencies and the public encourage, these unbound sources could play a vital role not only in Afghanistan's energy supply, but also in poverty reduction, social and political stability, and improving living standard.
... Electric power in Afghanistan comes either from imports or from expensive domestic diesel generators. Although there are significant potentials for renewable energy generation in Afghanistan, the actual progress in this area has been negligible [24]. The presence of fault lines, volcanic activity, and hot springs in Afghanistan signify the good geothermal potential of this country [25]. ...
... Afghanistan is a landlocked country connecting the Middle East to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent [24]. Afghanistan has a population of 32.53 million and a GDP of $20.04 billion [65]. ...
... Afghanistan has a population of 32.53 million and a GDP of $20.04 billion [65]. Over the past few decades, instability, conflict and war have made Afghanistan extremely vulnerable and insecure [24]. Statistics provided by the Afghanistan government show that only 10e15% of the population have permanent access to electricity, which is one of the lowest rates in the world. ...
Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy with high availability and independence from climatic and atmospheric conditions. It has been shown that geothermal energy is technically, economically and environmentally more suitable for hydrogen production than other renewable sources. Hydrogen has wide applications in many fields including cooling, oil, gas, petrochemical, nuclear, and energy industries. Afghanistan has significant potential in geothermal power generation and also several hydrogen-consuming industries that provide opportunities for geothermal-based hydrogen production. This study attempted to find suitable locations for the construction of geothermal power plant for hydrogen production in Afghanistan. Given the multitude of criteria involved in the choice of location, evaluations and comparisons were performed using multi-criteria decision-making methods. Nine criteria were used to evaluate 17 Afghanistan provinces in terms of suitability for geothermal-based hydrogen production. The SWARA (Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) method was used to weight the criteria and then the ARAS (Additive Ratio Assessment) method was used to rank the provinces. The results were validated. The results showed that Sari pul, Balkh and Herat are the most suitable Afghanistan provinces and Zabul, Ghor and Kandahar are the least suitable Afghanistan provinces for geothermal-based hydrogen production. The three methods produced almost identical rankings with only minor differences in the overall ranking of some provinces.
The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid line extensions contribute to the advantages of renewable based decentralized rural electrification in Ne-pal. Solar home system (SHS) and micro-hydro are the most commonly adopted off-grid renewable energy technologies in the country. This dis-sertation examines the market of renewable energy based rural electrification within prevailing policy and programmes framework. The study verifies whether the market has been able to serve the poor in Nepal. It also captures the perception of various stakeholders (e.g. private sup-ply/installation companies, NGOs, financial institutions and the donor‘s programme) regarding the business, financing issues and the role of government policy on the market development. In addition, the study discusses and analyses renewable based rural electrification supply models, the economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal.
The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally characterized by subsidy, equity and credit. The study shows that awareness about renewable energy technologies and willingness to pay for electricity access has increased considerably. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and affordability among the poor. The distribution analysis shows there is significant increment in the extensive growth but decrease in the intensive growth rate of rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the ru-ral people. Solar PV technology is still not in the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanisms have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovation in the credit and subsidy delivery system so that a larger rural population can be given ac-cess to electrification.
Electricity is produced by geothermal in 24 countries, five of which obtain 15-22% of their national electricity production from geothermal energy. Direct application of geothermal energy (for heating, bathing etc.) has been reported by 72 countries. By the end of 2004, the worldwide use of geothermal energy was 57 TWh/yr of electricity and 76 TWh/yr for direct use. Ten developing countries are among the top fifteen countries in geothermal electricity production. Six developing countries are among the top fifteen countries reporting direct use. China is at the top of the latter list. It is considered possible to increase the installed world geothermal electricity capacity from the current 10 GW to 70 GW with present technology, and to 140 GW with enhanced technology. Enhanced Geothermal Systems, which are still at the experimental level, have enormous potential for primary energy recovery using new heat- exploitation technology to extract and utilise the Earth's stored thermal energy. Present investment cost in geothermal power stations is 2-4.5 million euro/MWe, and the generation cost 40-100 euro/MWh. Direct use of geothermal energy for heating is also commercially competitive with conventional energy sources. Scenarios for future development show only a moderate increase in traditional direct use applications of geothermal resources, but an exponential increase is foreseen in the heat pump sector, as geothermal heat pumps can be used for heating and/or cooling in most parts of the world. CO2 emission from geothermal power plants in high-temperature fields is about 120 g/kWh (weighted average of 85% of the world power plant capacity). Geothermal heat pumps driven by fossil fuelled electricity reduce the CO2 emission by at least 50% compared with fossil fuel fired boilers. If the electricity that drives the geothermal heat pump is produced from a renewable energy source like hydropower or geothermal energy the emission savings are up to 100%. The total CO2 emission reduction potential of geothermal heat pumps has been estimated to be 1.2 billion tonnes per year or about 6% of the global emission. The CO2 emission from low-temperature geothermal water is negligible or in the order of 0-1 g CO2/kWh depending on the carbonate content of the water. Geothermal energy is available day and night every day of the year and can thus serve as a supplement to energy sources which are only available intermittently. Renewable energy sources can contribute significantly more to the mitigation of climate change by cooperating than by competing. Likely case scenarios are presented in the paper for electricity production and direct use of geothermal energy, as well as the mitigation potential of geothermal resources 2005-2050. These forecasts need to be elaborated on further during the preparation of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation.
This communication presents a comprehensive review on the solar photovoltaic (SPV) systems for recent advances and their emerging applications in the present and future scenario. Besides, the performance study of off grid and grid connected SPV power plant has been discussed and presented in detail. From the literature, it is found that the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems varies from 10% to 23%. Thus, the efficiency is the important factor which needs to be explored further for the best implementation and utilization of this emerging and useful technology around the globe. However, among all the applications discussed here, Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) and photo-voltaic thermal (PV/T) are found to be the most technically sound and exhibit that SPV may be a feasible solution for the future energy challenges. Again, the building integrated PV system not only reduces the area requirement, but also cuts the material and infrastructure costs of the building and hence, fulfills the technical thrust for smart building requirements. Recently developed CPV cells are found to be feasible, most promising and cost effective technology having higher efficiency and lesser material requirements than those of the other solar cells. On the other hand, as the PV/T systems produce not only the electricity but also the heat energy are found to be more useful, suitable, and promising for most of the real life applications especially, where both forms of energy are required simultaneously.
The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid line extensions contribute to the advantages of renewable based decentralized rural electrification in Nepal. Solar home system (SHS) and micro-hydro are the most commonly adopted off-grid renewable energy technologies in the country. This dissertation examines the market of renewable energy based rural electrification within prevailing policy and programmes framework. The study verifies whether the market has been able to serve the poor in Nepal. It also captures the perception of various stakeholders (e.g. private supply/installation companies, NGO’s , financial institutions and the donor’s programme) regarding the busi-ness, financing issues and the role of government policy on the market development. In addition, the study discusses and analyses renewable based rural electrification supply models, the economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal.
The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally charac-terized by subsidy, equity and credit. The study shows that awareness about RE-technologies and willingness to pay for electricity access has increased considerably. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and affordability among the poor. The distribution analysis shows there is significant increment in the extensive growth but decrease in the intensive growth rate of rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the rural people. Solar PV technology is still not in the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanisms have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovation in the credit and subsidy delivery system so that a larger rural population can be given access to electrification.
Key words: Renewable energy, rural electrification, off-grid, financing; subsidy, credit, equity, market, extensive growth, intensive growth
Energy has been globally recognized as one of the most critical inputs for economic growth and development of any civilization or society. There is a linear and a bi-directional relationship between economic prosperity and energy consumption. In the global competitive scenario growth of an economy is primarily dependent on availability of environment friendly energy at competitive prices. Also, the productivity of industrial and manufacturing, agricultural, and services sectors are very much reliant on energy available at competitive prices. These sectors are considered to be basic drivers of economic growth of any country. Availability of energy with desired quality at affordable price holds key to sustainable development and quality of services in the field of industrial productivity, education, health, and most importantly food security. Considering last decade economic growth most economists see India as one of the economic powerhouses of the future. It has the economic stability to survive the recessionary pressure and continue to have stable growth. These are some of the reasons why many of them are projecting India as the second largest economy just behind China by 2050. This necessitates higher energy consumption to support the productivity in different industries and services sector. With limited availability of non-renewable energy in the domestic market the country is forced to be over dependent on imported energy. Long term exposure to imported energy means economy remains vulnerable to oil shocks leading to financial un-stability, economic and social unrest. Long term energy security remains as one of the top most priority for government, industry bodies and strategic policy makers in India. This paper analyses the constraints of ensuring affordable energy accessible to all citizens and industries. The paper suggests ways to remove constraints and move forward to ensure long term energy security in India.
High social, environmental and financial costs of dam construction during the past century provide valuable lessons for improving large infrastructure governance and enhancing dam safety. The Italian Vajont dam tragedy in 1963, for example, where the urgency to boost post-war economic development overruled cautionary site selection and reservoir filling, led to improved safety regulations. Today, Afghanistan is facing similar pressure to spur economic development. Revisiting Afghanistan’s own dam history may inform decision-making over large scale dam development. For this, we refer to dam development in Afghanistan during the Cold War institutional constellation, which combined with the discourse on the role of dams in state formation, modernisation and development, profoundly shaped Afghanistan’s landscape. Current dam development shows little evidence that any historic reflection is taking place; instead the discourse of infrastructure-as-prerequisite-for-development is consistently repeated. We argue that four factors compromise dam development in Afghanistan today: (1) lack of security; (2) an institutional context under transition; (3) absence of transboundary dialogue and agreements and (4) uncertain and fragmented aid provision. The complexity of dam development and operation is exacerbated by the extended temporal and spatial scale of their impact, thus placing a heavy burden on management- and planning capacity. Given these conditions, these dam development plans are built on fragile institutional foundations. To address their feasibility under such circumstances this paper links lessons from the past with the criticalities in future Afghan dam development.
The rapid depletion of fossil fuel reserves and environmental concerns with their combustion necessitate looking for alternative sources for long term sustainability of the world. These concerns also appear serious in developing countries who are striving for rapid economic growth. The net biomass growing potential on the global land surface is 10 times more than the global food, feed, fiber, and energy demands. This study investigates whether the developing countries have sufficient land resource to meet the projected energy demand towards 2035 by planting energy crops on surplus agricultural land after food and feed production. The annual yields of four commonly grown energy crops specifically jatropha, switchgrass, miscanthus, and willow have been used to make scenarios and estimate land requirements against each scenario. This paper first performs literature reviews on the availability of land resource, past and future trends in land use changes, demand of lands for food production, and potential expansion of croplands. The energy demands towards 2035 are compiled from energy scenarios derived by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the British Petroleum (BP). This paper also reviewed bio-physiological characteristics of these energy crops to determine whether they are cultivable under tropical climatic conditions in developing regions. This paper found that projected energy demand through 2035 in developing regions could be provided by energy crops grown on a portion of surplus croplands or upgraded grasslands (27% and 22% respectively for miscanthus scenario). Sustainable land management practices, improved agricultural productivity, and adopting suitable energy crops cultivation can potentially supply increasing energy demands.
Afghanistan is facing many challenges on its path of reconstruction and development. Among all its pressing needs, the country would benefit from the development and implementation of an energy strategy. In addition to conventional energy sources, the Afghan government is considering alternative options such as energy derived from renewable resources (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal). Biomass energy is derived from a variety of sources -- plant-based material and residues -- and can be used in various conversion processes to yield power, heat, steam, and fuel. This study provides policymakers and industry developers with information on the biomass resource potential in Afghanistan for power/heat generation and transportation fuels production. To achieve this goal, the study estimates the current biomass resources and evaluates the potential resources that could be used for energy purposes.
This paper investigates the interactive relationships among China energy price shocks, stock market, and the macroeconomy using multivariate vector autoregression. The results indicate that there is a long cointegration among them. A 1% rise in the energy price index can depress the stock market index by 0.54% and the industrial value-adding growth by 0.037%. Energy price shocks also cause inflation and have a 5-month lag effect on stock market, which may result in the stock market "underreacting." The energy price can explain stock market fluctuations better than the interest rate over a longer time period. Consequently, investors should pay greater attention to the long-term effect of energy on the stock market.
With the increasing negative effects of fossil fuel combustion on the environment in addition to limited stock of fossil fuel have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmentally friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. Energy policy plays a vital role to mitigate the impacts of global warming and crisis of energy availability. This paper explores the wind energy industry from the point of view of the wind energy policy. It is noticed that energy policy could help increasing wind power generation as well as stimulating the energy industry. It may be stated that without specific energy policy, a country would not be able to solve the acute problems like reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, scarcity of energy, etc. This paper discussed the existing successful energy policies for few selected countries. Based on literatures, it has been found that FIT, RPS, incentives, pricing law and Quota system are the most useful energy policies practiced by many countries around the world. Then, status of wind energy policy for Malaysia was investigated and compared with few selected countries around the world.
Solar energy systems (photovoltaics, solar thermal, solar power) provide significant environmental benefits in comparison to the conventional energy sources, thus contributing, to the sustainable development of human activities. Sometimes however, their wide scale deployment has to face potential negative environmental implications. These potential problems seem to be a strong barrier for a further dissemination of these systems in some consumers.To cope with these problems this paper presents an overview of an Environmental Impact Assessment. We assess the potential environmental intrusions in order to ameliorate them with new technological innovations and good practices in the future power systems. The analysis provides the potential burdens to the environment, which include—during the construction, the installation and the demolition phases, as well as especially in the case of the central solar technologies—noise and visual intrusion, greenhouse gas emissions, water and soil pollution, energy consumption, labour accidents, impact on archaeological sites or on sensitive ecosystems, negative and positive socio-economic effects.
Natural scientists are being encouraged by environmental and developmental agencies to define and operationalize the concept of sustainability in a “scientific” manner. Such an approach is fraught with dangers because values, opinions, and social influences are an inextricable part of science, especially applied science. Natural scientists’ attempts to define sustainability, particularly to decide what should be sustained, cannot therefore be value-neutral. They simply end up shifting value judgments to different levels by choosing either a single obvious objective, an arbitrary range of objectives, or an arbitrary method of aggregating different preferences. This lack of self-reflectiveness on the part of scientists has important consequences for the direction of research and its political implications. Natural scientists should heed lessons from earlier cases of scientists’ involvement in policy and redefine the terms of reference before shouldering their social burden. The dilemma of pursuing objective science in a value-loaded and socially charged discourse can be resolved by properly understanding the role of analysis and by pursuing a socially grounded pluralistic approach to problem definition and research methodology.
Considering India׳s ambition to ensure energy security, renewable energy sources like solar, wind, biomass, and small hydro can play crucial role in the energy mix of the country. Solar has been identified as one of the key renewable sources to supplement the conventional energy sources and reduce carbon footprint in India. Authors review solar energy potential, market developments, capacity additions, actual production, and component manufacturing industry, trade status, and economics of solar energy in the country. Recently the Government revised target for solar power capacity installation from 20 GW to100 GW by 2022. However, the solar industry faces a significant level of challenges in the areas of grid connectivity and evacuation infrastructure, regulatory & policy developments, capacity utilization, initial capital investment, lack of innovative financing models, consumer awareness and acceptance. Authors suggest that by taking key strategic steps like creating, attracting investment climate, making easy access to financing, developing transmission and distribution infrastructure, skill development, and developing domestic component manufacturing industry - the challenges can be addressed. Such progressive steps would enable India to achieve the objective of industrialization through clean energy.
Smart grid engineering is the key for a beneficial use of widespread energy resources, it is a modernized electrical grid that uses analog or digital information and communications technology. Renewable energy itself a thrust area of research due to its availability, applicability and environmental friendly nature and the application of smart grid in renewable energy makes it vast and more promising. This fusion enables the efficient use of renewable energies which is a key challenge for now. The present review paper attempts to investigate the role of smart grid in the renewable energy. The introductory section sets the role of renewable energy and distributed power in a smart grid system. Subsections cover the concept and availability of renewable energies, renewable energy power calculation formulae, smart grid concepts and its feasibility, case studied as performed by different researchers around the World, discussion and future recommendations and finally the conclusions from the study. To achieve this, articles from different sources such as internet, reports, conferences and journals of Elsevier, Springer, Tailor and Franacis, Wiley and many more have been collected and reviewed. This paper concludes that renewable energies can be used efficiently and in a smart way by using the smart grids. However, the smart grid technology is not mature enough and needs more research on the same.
This paper investigates the causality among economic growth, renewable energy consumption, capital and labor for new EU member countries for the period of 1990–2009, by using asymmetric causality test approach and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. The empirical results support that renewable energy consumption has positive impacts on economic growth for all investigated countries. But only for Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia there is statistically significant impact on economic growth has found. And also supports neutrality hypothesis for Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia while the conservation hypothesis is present for Czech Republic. The fact that there is a causal relationship from economic growth to renewable energy consumption and the growth hypothesis is supported for Bulgaria, referring to causality from energy consumption to economic growth.
Significantly increasing access to modern energy services in developing countries requires strong and immediate action. Energy access is crucial to enhance economic and social development, reduce poverty, and contribute to international security. To help provide clarity in this area, support political decision making, and inform the design of financial responses, we consider the overall scale of spending required to meet universal access to modern energy services. We review the existing literature at the global, regional, national, and project levels and disaggregate cost estimates in order to provide increased transparency through comparable metrics. We then describe a new methodology and calculate three new cost scenarios that attempt to address several existing analytical gaps. We conclude that the total cost of providing (near) universal access is likely to be considerably higher than published estimates which often focus primarily on capital costs. While recognizing the coarse nature of our analysis, we find that the annual cost of universal access to electricity and clean cooking ranges from USD 14 to 136 (USD 12-134 billion for electrification and USD 1.4 to 2.2 billion for clean cooking).
This paper deals with the operation of a hybrid wind/hydro power system aiming at producing low cost electricity. A specific application on the island of Ikaria in Greece is analysed and typical results are presented and compared to the results produced from a simulation program. The simulation program, which is based on the stochastic behaviour of the weather conditions, uses as input data the monthly wind-speed distribution and, to a smaller extent, which is determined from the use of an appropriate weighting factor, the rate of rain water which is stored in the hydro reservoir. Useful conclusions were drawn regarding the feasibility of these applications in Greek islands and the expected electric energy saving.
Most experts agree that the major blackout that affected a large part of the North American upper Midwest and Northeast last August 14, 2003, was no anomaly and will definitely happen again. Records show that between 1984 and 2000, utilities logged 11 outages affecting more than 4000 megawatts, making the probability of any one outage 325 times greater than mathematicians would have expected. Mathematicians, engineers, and physicists have set out to explain the statistical overabundance of big blackouts. Two distinct models emerged based on two general theories of systems failure. One, an optimization model presumes that power engineers make conscious and rational choices to focus resources on preventing smaller and more common disturbances on the lines; large blackouts occur because the grid isn't forcefully engineered to prevent them. The other model views blackouts as a surprisingly constructive force in an unconscious feedback loop that operates over years or decades. Blackouts spur investments to strengthen overloaded power systems, periodically counter-balancing pressures to maximize return on investment and deliver electricity at the lowest possible cost. The mainstream view among power system engineers continues to be the answer to reliability problems is to make the grids more robust physically, improve simulation techniques and computerized real-time controls, and improve regulation. What system theorists suggest is that even if all that is done and done well, the really big outages still will happen more often than they should.
This paper presents the global energy supply potential of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP). Based on
the DLR-ISIS data for global direct normal irradiance, an estimate is derived for global potential CSP areas
and their electricity supply potential. Assumptions are included for land use restrictions and land use
efficiency. Including data of global distribution of population distances of centers of CSP electricity supply to
human electricity demand are estimated. Performance characteristics of high voltage direct current (HVDC)
power transmission is used for analysing global energy supply potential of CSP. Results are shown for
different regions in the world, different distances to potential CSP areas and for electric and non-electric
energy needs. The outcome clearly shows that CSP has the potential to become a major source of global
energy supply. This supports an important assumption in the DESERTEC concept, which assigns large
fraction of power supply to CSP.
The global demand for energy is currently growing beyond the limits of installable generation capacity. To meet future energy demands efficiently, energy security and reliability must be improved and alternative energy sources must be investigated aggressively. An effective energy solution should be able to address long-term issues by utilizing alternative and renewable energy sources. Of the many available renewable sources of energy, solar energy is clearly a promising option as it is extensively available. Solar power, especially as it reaches more competitive levels with other energy sources in terms of cost, may serve to sustain the lives of millions of underprivileged people in developing countries. Furthermore, solar energy devices can benefit the environment and economy of developing countries. This paper illustrates the need for the utilization of alternative energy sources, evaluates the global scenario of installed generation systems, reviews technologies underlying various solar powered devices, and discusses several applications and challenges in this area. In addition, this paper addresses the costs of deployment, maintenance, and operation, as well as economic policies that promote installation of solar energy systems.
The global demand for energy is growing and conventional energy sources like coal and petroleum are depleting, and renewable resources will play a crucial role in the future. The development of clean and sustainable energy technology is imperative to avert the impending climatic crisis. A worthy investment option is concentrating solar power (CSP) technology which has the capacity to provide for about 7% of the total electricity needs projected for the world by 2030 and 25% by 2050 (considering a high-energy-saving, high-energy-efficiency scenario) [1]. In the present study, the various concentrators available have been explored. Countries all over the world have recognized the potential for CSP and numerous plants are being planned and constructed with incentives offered by the governments. In India, the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat have the potential for widespread application of CSP technology to harness the solar resource. The launch of The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2008 by the Indian Government and its initiatives, complemented by state solar policy passed by the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, will go a long way in the establishment of CSP to supply a segment of India's upcoming energy needs.
The discussion on electrification pathways tends to dangle between the merits of centralized on-grid versus decentralized off-grid electrification, and most of the time, both routes are promoted in parallel. However, the basis for choosing pathways has neither been very clear nor rational. This study compares three pathways for rural electrification considering (i) off-grid renewable energy (RE) technologies for individual households (ii) mini grids (with micro hydro and diesel generators) and (iii) grid extension. Different technological pathways are analyzed considering various technical and socio-economic parameters in two country cases: Nepal and Afghanistan. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is taken as the main basis for comparison of the various options, in which both environmental externalities and life cycle costs are considered. The analysis shows that the micro hydro based mini grid technology is the most competitive alternative for electrifying isolated and remote rural areas in both countries. Individual household technology should be promoted only in places with scattered households where there is no possibility of mini grid solution. The choice of technology and the pathway adopted in Nepal seems functional, though some flaws within the pathways need to be addressed. In Afghanistan, the technological pathways for rural electrification are not well-defined and the country lacks a clear cut national policy framework for rural electrification. Here, micro hydro based mini grid would be a more sustainable proposition rather than diesel generators as promoted in the transitional phase. Afghanistan can benefit from lessons learnt in Nepal not least in the formation of markets for renewable technologies.
The paper presents an insight to the household energy consumption in urban Afghanistan, and is based on household surveys conducted in one of its growing cities – Kandahar. The analysis shows that the energy consumed in residential sector has the major share in the total energy consumed in urban Afghanistan. About 72% of the total residential energy is spent for cooking purposes, and firewood is still the predominant form of energy with a share of around 58% for different end uses. Details on current energy process and the energy expenditure for different income levels have been presented. Although the total energy consumption in urban household is relatively lower in Afghanistan, the paper argues that the increase in consumption and transition to modern fuels is likely with increased urbanization, socioeconomic development and improved electricity supply. Against the backdrop of likely increase in energy use, the issue of sustainability becomes significant and therefore, policies are key to ensuring energy development taking into consideration sustainability concerns.
Access to modern energy is believed to be a prerequisite for sustainable development, poverty alleviation and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
However, theoretical models and empirical results offer conflicting evidence on the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth that we remain largely unsure of the cause-and-effect nature of this relationship, if indeed a relationship exists at all.
This paper tests, in a panel context, the long-run relationship between energy access, and economic growth for fifteen African countries from 1980 to 2008 by using recently developed panel cointegration techniques.
We adopt a three-stage approach, consisting of panel unit root, panel cointegration and Granger causality tests to study the dynamic causal relationships between energy consumption, energy prices and growth as well as relationship between electricity consumption, prices and growth.
Results show that GDP and energy consumption as well as GDP and electricity move together in the long-run. By estimating these long-run relationships and testing for causality using panel-based error correction models, we found unidirectional long-run and short-run causality. The causality is running from GDP to energy consumption in the short-run, and from energy consumption to GDP in the long-run. There is also evidence of unidirectional causality running from electricity consumption to GDP in the long-run.
This study thus provides empirical evidence of long-run and causal relationships between energy consumption and economic growth for our sample of fifteen countries; suggesting that lack or limited access to modern energy services could hamper economic growth and compromise the development prospects of these countries.
Hydrogen is an important energy carrier which could play a very significant role in the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases. The route by which hydrogen is produced is the determining factor for its environmental performance. Hydrogen can be produced through methane reforming or through the electrolysis of water with the use of electricity or it can be produced directly by gasification from biomass. Renewable energy sources (RES) could be the feedstock for the two methods previously mentioned. The objective of this work is the comparison of hydrogen (H2) production processes using various renewable energy sources. This comparison is based on the exergy efficiency of each process. The renewable energy sources that have been used are: wind power, solar energy, hydroelectric power, and biomass. The solar energy systems that are used are photovoltaic and thermal. The biomass systems are divided into two categories: (a) electricity production through biomass combustion, (b) biomass gasification for the direct production of hydrogen. When in any of the processes electricity is produced, this electricity is used for the electrolysis process of water to produce hydrogen (and oxygen). Because hydrogen is transported in a liquid form, the liquefaction process is also taken into consideration in this work. The liquefaction process is very energy intensive and as a consequence it requires a lot of exergy. It has been found that the hydrogen production process with the highest exergy efficiency is the electrolysis using electricity from hydro power. This efficiency is 5.6%. The process with the lowest exergy efficiency is the one with electrolysis driven by electricity from solar energy photovoltaics. The efficiency of this process is 1.0%.
The fundamental challenge of the 21st century that mankind has to face is definitely energy supply, its storage and conversion in a way that necessarily protects the environment. For 250 years, the tremendous development of humanity has been founded on the harnessing of fossil fuels (coal, crude oil then natural gas) as primary energy due to their high energy density values and the easiness of access. However, this global pattern of energy supply and use is unsustainable. Global warming and finite fossil-fuel supplies call for a radical change in the energy mix to favour renewable energy sources. Without being exhaustive, we tackle in this article the tricky energy question and associated environmental issues as personally perceived. The eminent role of electric energy produced from decarbonized sources in a future sustainable economy is particularly highlighted as well as the issues of its needed storage. The possible and foreseen hindrances of electrochemical energy storage devices, focusing on the lithium-ion technology, are presented in parallel with the possible pathways to make such a technology greener in synergy with the rise of a biomass-based industry.
This paper examines the relative effectiveness of feed-in tariff (FIT) and Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in promoting wind capacity development using panel data. Conservative estimates suggest that, on average across countries, FIT increases total wind capacity more than RPS by a magnitude of about 1800MW. When using time variant policy indicators, the difference between the two policies increases to nearly 2000MW, roughly 8% of 2009 cumulative capacity in Germany. As for annual wind capacity since 2005, this paper has found no significant difference between FIT and RPS. It is also found that wind energy development responds to high electricity demand and high oil dependence.
In order to assess the current status of international geothermal power generation, the author has reviewed the Country Update (CU) papers submitted to the World Geothermal Conference 2000 in Japan from nations generating or planning to generate electricity. Salient facts in these papers have been synthesized and summary descriptions of geothermally-related activities written. Finally, following a brief discussion, conclusions are drawn and appropriate tables and graphs presented. The CU reviews revealed that: (1) geothermally-fueled electric power is being generated in 21 nations as of February 2000; (2) the installed capacity has reached 7974 MWe, which is a 16.7% increase since 1995; the total energy generated during the last 5 years has been at least 49,261 GWh; about 1165 wells more than 100 m deep have been drilled, and at least 13,621 person-years of professional geothermists’ time has been expended in the nations that reported this statistic.
Renewable energy sources and technologies have potential to provide solutions to the longstanding energy problems being faced by the developing countries like India. Solar energy can be an important part of India's plan not only to add new capacity but also to increase energy security, address environmental concerns, and lead the massive market for renewable energy. Solar thermal electricity (STE) also known as concentrating solar power (CSP) are emerging renewable energy technologies and can be developed as future potential option for electricity generation in India. In this paper, efforts have been made to summarize the availability, current status, strategies, perspectives, promotion policies, major achievements and future potential of solar energy options in India.
This article argues that there are several logical reasons for the existence of asymmetric causal effects that need to be
taken into account but usually are neglected in the literature. It suggests allowing for asymmetry in the causality testing
by using the cumulative sums of positive and negative shocks. A bootstrap simulation approach with leverage adjustment is
used to generate critical values that are robust to non-normality and time-varying volatility. An application to the efficient
market hypothesis in the UAE is provided. The results show that the equity market is informationally efficient with regard
to the oil shocks regardless if these shocks are positive or negative.
The provision of electricity is a vital need in reconstruction and development situations, like that in Afghanistan. Indeed, according to the Afghan government's Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS) the need for electricity featured in 80% of the Provincial Development Plans as a top priority. With the help of the International Community, the government of Afghanistan is attempting to develop a new market oriented approach to the nationwide provision of electrical power. Although the bulk of the electrification effort is directed toward large scale construction of a national grid, the ANDS explicitly mentions a role for “micro-hydro, solar, waste and small scale diesel power and energy generating sources”. This article will describe a micro-hydro project in Padisaw village, in the Nurgaram district of Nuristan province located in Northeastern Afghanistan and the role Provincial Reconstruction Team played in working with the local community through the project planning and building processes and offer some observation on how, as the Afghan National Development Strategy is executed, the private sector can play an increasingly significant role in the Afghan distributed energy arena.
One of the most important elements on the recovery of a small hydro-power plant is the electro-mechanical equipment (turbine–alternator), since the cost of the equipment means a high percentage of the total budget of the plant. The present paper intends to develop a series of equations which determine its cost from basic parameters such as power and net head. These calculations are focused at a level of previous study, so it will be necessary to carry out the engineering project and request a budget to companies specialized on the construction of electro-mechanical equipment to know its cost more accurately. Although there is a great diversity in the typology of turbines and alternators, data from manufacturers which cover all the considered range have been used. The above equations have been developed for the most common of turbines: Pelton, Francis, Kaplan and semiKaplan for a power range below 2MW.The obtained equations have been validated with data from real installations which have been subject to analysis by engineering companies working on the assembly and design of small plants.
This paper focused on a review of international experiences on fuel economy standard based on technologies available. It also attempts to identify savings possibilities and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. It is known that road transport, particularly private cars are responsible for large, and increasing share of transport fuel use and emissions. With the implementation of fuel economy standard and label for motor vehicles, it will reduce the risks of increasing dependency on petroleum-based fuel and will increase the profit to consumers. The GHG emissions, which causing global warming, air pollution, diseases, etc. can be reduced as well. In this regard, advanced technologies such as, engine, transmission, and vehicle technologies may brought significant consumers and social benefits. Studies in developed countries have shown that fuel economy standard is beneficial for the society, government as well as the environment.
The development of feed-in tariff (FIT) programs to support green electricity in Ontario (the Green Energy and Green Economy Act of 2009) and Germany (the Erneuerbare Energien-Gesetz of 2000) is compared. The two policies are highly comparable, offering similar rates for most renewable electricity technologies. Major differences between the policies include the level of differentiation found in the German policy, as well as the use of a price degression strategy for FIT rates in Germany compared to an escalation strategy in Ontario. The German renewable electricity portfolio is relatively balanced, compared to Ontario where wind power dominates the portfolio. At the federal level, Canada does not yet have a policy similar to the European Directive on Renewable Energy, and this lack may impact decisions taken by manufacturers of renewable technologies who consider establishing operations in the province. Ontario's Green Energy and Green Economy Act could be benefit from lessons in the German system, especially with regard to degression of feed-in tariff rates over time, which could significantly reduce payments to producers over the course of a contract, and in turn encourage greater competitiveness among renewable power providers in the future.Highlights► We compare two jurisdictions that utilize feed-in tariffs to support renewable electricity. ► Complementary policy such as mandated renewable energy use in conjunction with tariffs increases certainty for investors. ► Targeted incentives in the form of adders can deliver more diversity in renewable generation capacity. ► Degression of tariff rates delivers renewable generation capacity at lower cost.
Geographic scale matters in integrated assessments of global climate change issues, but incorporating a variety of scales and cross-scale dynamics in integrated assessment modeling requires confronting a number of conceptual and operational challenges, including upscaling, downscaling, tracing out cross-scale relationships, and multi-scale synthesis.
a b s t r a c t Wind resource analysis was carried out for two major islands in the Fiji. Wind data from July 1993 to June 2005 from NASA data base was analysed. Annual seasonal variation in wind speed, direction and power density were analysed for various locations. The average yearly wind speed for Fiji is between 5 and 6 m/ s with average power density of 160 W/m 2 . Site specific validation showed no significant relationship between NASA and experimental data. The wind resource at Laucala Bay has a power density of 131 W/m 2 at 55 m. The expected annual energy produced from a 275 kW GEV Vergnet wind turbine is 344 MWh. The capacity factor of the turbine is expected to be 14.3% with an overall efficiency of 37%. The electricity generated would cost $FJ 0.27 per kWh. The system will payback its worth in 12.2 years.
The expansion in the supply of energy services over the last couple of centuries has reduced the apparent importance of energy in economic growth despite energy being an essential production input. We demonstrate this by developing a simple extension of the Solow growth model, which we use to investigate 200 years of Swedish data. We find that the elasticity of substitution between a capital-labor aggregate and energy is less than unity, which implies that when energy services are scarce they strongly constrain output growth resulting in a Malthusian steady-state. When energy services are abundant the economy exhibits the behavior of the “modern growth regime” with the Solow model as a limiting case. The expansion of energy services is found to be a major factor in explaining the industrial revolution and economic growth in Sweden, especially before the second half of the 20th century. In the latter period, labor augmenting technological change becomes the dominant factor driving growth.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey the empirical literature on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The four major hypotheses (growth, conservation, neutrality, and feedback) are briefly outlined with respect to the energy consumption‐growth nexus and corresponding policy implications of each. The survey focuses on country coverage, variables selected and model specification, econometric approaches, various methodological issues, and empirical results.
Findings
Though there is no clear consensus on the results for a specific country or groups of countries, directions for future research are discussed.
Research limitations/implications
The research surveyed may be dated by the time of publication given the ongoing research in this area.
Originality/value
This paper serves as a reference for researchers on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.
Fossil fuel reserves are diminishing rapidly across the world, intensifying the stress on existing reserves day-by-day due to increased demand. Not only that, fossil fuels, presently contributing to 80% of world primary energy, are inflicting enormous impacts on environment. Climatic changes driven by human activities, in particular the production of greenhouse gas emissions, directly impact the environment. Energy sector has a key role in this regard since energy during its production, distribution and consumption is responsible for producing environmentally harmful substances. A secure and accessible supply of energy is thus very crucial for the sustainability of modern societies. There is an urgent need for a quicker switch over of energy systems from conventional to renewables that are sustainable and can meet the present and projected world energy demand. Solar power is one of the most promising renewables. It is reliable and less vulnerable to changes in seasonal weather patterns. Hydrogen, in the capacity of energy vector, is expected to be the optimum solution for intermittency and storage of energy produced by renewables. Thus, coupled with hydrogen as an energy carrier, solar energy has a large potential to become the fuel of the future. The present study is aimed to explore such potential for India in 2025. India is expected to have a high growth rate in energy demand over the coming years due to its huge population and rapid economic development. By the year 2020, the country's demand for commercial energy is expected to increase by a factor of 2.5. Presently, more than 90% of the energy demand is met by fossil fuels, in spite of the fact that India has limited fossil fuel resources as compared to global reserves. By the year 2020, India, presently the world's sixth largest energy consumer, is expected to meet 75% of its oil and gas needs by imports. Being an energy deficient country, it has not been able to keep up with demand, leading to power shortages and supply interruptions. The growing gap between the demand and supply of energy, and environmental externalities associated with fossil fuel require immediate and substantial increases in electric power generation and transmission capacities, and exploitation of new avenues of energy supply that are more stable and environment friendly. The geographic location of India makes it a strong candidate for harnessing solar energy. Thus, solar PV is a potential technology to meet India's future energy demand and its associated environmental challenges. The present work proposes solar hydrogen based energy network to meet the future energy demand for the major cities of India in a sustainable way. In the proposed energy network, solar PV produced electricity is to be utilized to meet the energy demand during day hours. The solar generated electricity that is excessive of demand is to be stored in the form of hydrogen to be utilized during nocturnal hours and prolonged overcast conditions. A modular approach has been adopted for the purposed energy network to meet the year 2025 demand of six major cities of India: Chennai, Delhi, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Trivandrum. Present as well as projected cost scenarios for 2025 have been provided for all the proposed technologies to evaluate the economical viability of the energy network under study. Based on the futuristic trends, it is foreseen that by the year 2025, the PV electricity would be more economical than the fossil fuel electricity.