Research Papers N° 15

European  Post  Graduate  School  of  International  &  Development  Studies  

Renewable Energies for the Developing World: Integrating Sustainable with Economic &

Social Development

Daniela Stoycheva

 

2010  

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Table of Contents

Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................................... 2

Abstract.............................................................................................................................................................. 3

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 4

2. The energy access challenge for the developing world .............................................................................. 5

3. The Energy-poverty-environment nexus ................................................................................................... 9

4. Barriers to expanding energy access ....................................................................................................... 19

5. Powering poverty reduction - the role of renewables for poverty reduction and reaching the MDGs.. 20

5.1 Why renewables?.............................................................................................................................. 20

5.2 The sustainable energy challenge from a developing country perspective – obstacles to

producing renewable energy in the developing countries ........................................................................... 24

5.3 Green innovations as small-scale solutions ...................................................................................... 25

6. Case studies: Brazil and Uganda. Opportunities for South-South cooperation and learning ............... 28

6.1 Brazil................................................................................................................................................. 29

6.2 Uganda .............................................................................................................................................. 37

7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 42

References: ....................................................................................................................................................... 44

Annex I ............................................................................................................................................................. 50

Annex II ........................................................................................................................................................... 51

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Abbreviations

BRICs Brazil, Russia, India and China

ERT Energy for Rural Transformation Project

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GHG greenhouse gas emissions

GIZ Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

IEA International Energy Agency

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

LDCs Least Developed Countries

LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

MEMD Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda

NGO Non-governmental organization

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

PV photovoltaic systems

RETs Renewable Energy Technologies

toe tons of oil-equivalent

UN United Nations

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization

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Abstract

This work aims at examining the repercussions following from the lack of access to energy in the

developing countries and at raising awareness about energy poverty and the interrelated, more general,

poverty. It aims as well at analysing the energy-poverty-environment nexus in the developing world,

in other words, how low access of energy has a negative impact on poverty and other development

objectives, as well as on the environment, and how, on the other hand, climate change and high

poverty levels perpetuate the inability to obtain better and wider energy services. Providing safe,

clean, reliable and affordable energy to those who currently have low access is regarded as critical for

advancing development objectives. The dissertation investigates in how far the development and

environmental agenda have intertwined in the last years and suggests renewable energies as a means

for addressing the aforementioned challenges. Aiming at plausibility, the work analyses the viability

of expanding energy access and of increasing renewable energy production in the developing

countries. In relation to that, it considers political, institutional and economic obstacles in those

countries. The work regards renewables as an opportunity to reach multiple goals – increasing energy

access by using local available resources, advancing development goals related to poverty, education

and health, and last but not least, addressing climate change issues. Small-scale, decentralized energy

innovations are identified as cost-effective solutions, especially targeting remote, dispersed and very

poor communities. Two case studies – Brazil and Uganda – show in practice the issues discussed,

outlining the current energy mix in these countries and the programs and ambitions each of them has

for increasing energy access, and in particular renewable energy production. The broader aim of the

work is to raise awareness of the existing problems, but also alternative solutions, among the

development community, the general public, decision-makers and businesses.

Key words: Energy access, developing countries, renewable energies, obstacles, environment

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1. Introduction

According to projections by the World Energy Outlook, even in 2030 disparities in per-capita energy

consumption around the world will remain stark. More than 1.4 billion people in the developing world

still lack access to energy today. Not only will developing countries need a higher supply of energy,

but also the mix of energy sources would need to be changed. This work will explore the questions

‘Why a change of the current energy situation is essential for the development of the poor countries?’

and ‘What role do energy services play in improving the life of the poor and making a progress in

virtually all foundational areas of development as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs)?’ The current low use of energy and lack of access to modern energy sources amongst the

poor reinforce the problems that the MDGs aim to alleviate, such as high poverty, low educational

levels, bad health conditions and gender inequality. By answering the questions above, the paper will

aim at supporting the wider inclusion of energy concerns in the international development agenda.

The work will also argue that renewable energies would play a key role in improving both the access

to energy, and the efficiency and sustainability of energy services in the developing countries. It will

aim at addressing the question ‘Why developing countries should rely on renewable energy more?’

and by doing this at raising awareness about the benefits of renewable energies for the poor. The

exceptional renewable energy potential in those countries, the possibility for providing decentralized

off-grid supply, the positive impact on people’s health and the opportunity to apply leapfrogging

approaches and create sustainable economies from the outset, are all good reasons for the greater use

of renewables in the developing countries’ energy mix. In addition, the dissertation addresses the two-

fold energy challenge that confronts developing and emerging economies: expanding access to energy

while simultaneously participating in the global transition to clean, low-carbon energy systems. The

barriers to both the expansion of energy access in the developing world in general, and the wider use

of renewables in particular, are also discussed.

Finally, Brazil as an emerging economy and Uganda as a predominantly poor country are in focus in

this work, making an attempt to demonstrate the statements made throughout the work and to identify

the opportunities for renewable energy growth in the two countries.

The research for this work is based on data from the International Energy Agency for various energy-

related matters, and on reports, reviews, expert papers, etc. from the United Nations, the World Bank

and several other organisations on poverty and the poverty-energy mutual influence. For the largest

part of the findings about the two case studies as well as when describing some ‘green’ innovations,

the method of interviewing has been used. Unlike the broader part of the literature which analyses the

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interdependence between environment protection and poverty reduction, this work discusses mainly

the relation between energy and poverty reduction with a special focus on renewable energy. Thus,

this is a new prism through which to regard an old problem.

2. The energy access challenge for the developing world

Energy provides services that are essential to meet human needs. It is central to and can dramatically

affect virtually all aspects of human life, such as access to water, agricultural productivity, health care,

education, job creation, climate change, and environmental sustainability. The term ‘energy services’

refers to the benefits derived from the use of energy supplies. UN defines energy services as including

"lighting, heating, cooking, motive power, mechanical power, transport and telecommunications”

(UN-Energy, 2005, p.1). Thus business, industry, commerce and public services are also highly

dependent on energy delivery. Energy is therefore central to socio-economic development as a whole.

According to the International Energy Agency, primary demand for energy in respect to GDP has

grown steadily over the years from 1971 to 2007 in both OECD and non-OECD countries as Figure 1

shows (International Energy Agency, 2009, p.59). Projections by the Agency for the period 2007 to

2030 speak of another increase in demand with 1.5% per year from the value in 2007 (Table 1).

Figure 1: Primary energy demand and GDP, 1971-2007

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Table 1: World primary energy demand by fuel in the Reference Scenario (Mtoe)

Dramatic growth rates in consumption and demand have to be met by corresponding growth in energy

supplies. This is where the countries from the developing world face a serious challenge. Current

levels of energy services in these countries fail to support the socio-economic development of the

poor. Today, more than 1.4 billion people in the developing world do not have access to energy (Table

2). Today more than 1.4 billion people live in darkness. By comparison, in industrialised countries the

number of people without electricity is around 3 million, which compared to the population as a whole

turns out to be insignificant as almost 100% have electricity access. Even more striking are the

numbers with regards to the poorest countries alone. The electrification rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is

about 30% and in rural areas of the region it is just above 14% (Table 2). At the same time 80% of the

population in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia live in rural areas (UK Parliamentary Office of

Science and Technology, 2002, p.1). In 2005, average per capita energy consumption in the OECD

countries was more than four times the average per capita energy consumption across all non-OECD

countries, and nearly seven times the average per capita energy consumption in Africa (International

Energy Agency, 2007, p.48). Finally, intra-country disparities should also be considered as well. The

energy consumption patterns of elites in many developing countries are similar to those of the general

population in developed countries, whereas the rural poor account for the vast majority (nearly 90 %)

of all households without access to electricity. These facts clearly demonstrate the inequitable access

to energy services worldwide and the strong disparities that persist. At the same time, the majority of

the global population lives in the developing world.

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Table 2: Electricity access in 2009 – Regional aggregates

Source: IEA, World Energy Outlook

A further issue to be discussed is the quality of energy that poor people have access to. Energy

services can be generated from a variety of primary energy sources – oil, gas, coal, renewables, or

nuclear sources. This paper will make a distinction between three different forms of energy -

‘traditional’ fuels, ‘modern’ fuels, and electricity. Traditional fuels refer to fuelwood, charcoal, local

coal and kerosene in urban areas, mostly of the developing countries, and fuelwood, crop residues and

dung in the rural areas (UN-Energy, 2005, p.1). By contrast, modern fuels include natural gas,

liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and modern biomass fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and methanol.

Electricity is generated from both depletable energy resources (coal, natural gas, petroleum fuels), as

well as renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, geothermal energy)1. “Fuels

used traditionally by the poor provide few and low quality energy services – such as basic heating for

cooking and limited quality lighting” (UN-Energy, 2005, p.2). An estimated 2.5 to 3 billion people

rely on biomass and transitional fuels, such as coal and kerosene for cooking and heating (UN

Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change, 2010, p.14). Modern forms of energy

and electricity are essential for the development of industry, business and commerce, and for services

of life-saving importance such as adequate healthcare, education, communications, and transport.

Access to the latter forms of energy is even lower than access to traditional fuels, which exacerbates

the problem of creating adequate living conditions for the poor. Electricity is a luxury good for the

1 However in contrast to the source, which regards geothermal energy among the depletable energy resources, I have included it in the renewable ones

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poor. Furthermore, not only the accessibility and affordability of energy services have to be taken into

account, but also the fact that the poor have a limited choice and they tend to depend on one type of

fuel only, due to lack of secondary options. In contrast to wealthier people, who rely on “energy

mixing for best utility, and will often mix biomass, electricity and liquid and gaseous fuels in various

combinations and end uses”(Intermediate Technology Development Group, 2004, p.6), poor people

usually have only one energy source available to them. This, combined with the fact that the

technologies available to them are typically inefficient or low quality, results in the poor paying much

more per unit of useful energy service than the rich. Poor urban and rural households have

unpredictable and small incomes, which only allow them to buy small amounts of fuelwood, charcoal,

or kerosene leading to an increased price of energy. In addition, a higher share of the household's

income is spent on energy than in a wealthy household. Providing clean modern energy services to

poor communities will require the expansion of choice of energy options, including conventional and

non-conventional sources.

Other concerns over traditional biomass fuels are, on the one hand, their very low efficiency, and on

the other, their adverse environmental impact. Fuelwood gathering leads to land degradation and

exacerbates deforestation, especially because, due to their low energy efficiency, a larger quantity of

traditional fuels is needed. The use of traditional biomass fuels evokes, furthermore, economic, social

and health problems. Biomass combustion often causes suffocation and health-detrimental indoor air

pollution. “Worldwide almost two million deaths annually from pneumonia, chronic lung disease, and

lung cancer are associated with exposure to indoor air pollution resulting from cooking with biomass

and coal” (UNDP and WHO, 2009, p.2). In addition to this, it is misleading to think that traditional fuels

such as wood, crop residues, or dung, are for free, as they come at a high cost in time and in labour.

Fundamentally, in the developing world, women are the key energy providers and resource managers

for the household, particularly in poor households. In energy-deficient areas, it can take up to 5 hours

per day (UN-Energy, 2005, p.3) to source fuelwood, often exposing women and young girls to

significant physical insecurity. Women and children engaged in providing energy sources for the

household are thus prevented from participating in economic and social activities and attending

school, respectively. Therefore, the lack of proper access to energy is reinforcing existing gender

inequalities.

The projections that the World Energy Outlook makes are that even in 2030, disparities in per-capita

energy consumption will remain stark, ranging from 7 toe (tons of oil-equivalent) in Russia to 0.5 toe

in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Energy Outlook website, 2012). In the context described above, not

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only will developing countries need a higher supply of energy, but also the mix of energy sources

available to them will have to be improved.

3. The Energy-poverty-environment nexus

Persistent patterns of production and consumption, particularly of non-renewable energy sources, have

been the main cause of climate change. Developing and developed countries alike are accountable for

the heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Developing country emissions are rising steadily, especially

with the fast economic growth of the BRICs and South Africa. Nevertheless, developed country

emissions are overwhelmingly responsible for the current levels of global warming.

It is, however, developing countries that bear most of the burden. Poor countries have less capacity to

adapt to climate change and consequently are on average more vulnerable than developed countries.

There are several factors that explain this. Firstly, poor countries rely largely on sectors that are highly

susceptible to changes in temperature – agriculture, fisheries, fuelwood gathering for energy, among

others. Higher or lower temperatures, precipitation, and climatic extremes will add to the stress on

agricultural resources in many developing country regions and reduce the quality of land areas for

agricultural production. Thus, ecosystem degradation represents a considerable threat to poor,

especially rural, people’s survival. Secondly, the budget of poor households is very restricted and their

savings negligible, which makes them incapable of adapting quickly to changing circumstances and to

the loss of sources of food and living. They also need to devote a higher proportion of their available

resources to coping with adverse and unexpected climatic conditions. Dwellings of poor families are

also unstable and less resistant to crises. Thirdly, the limited human, institutional, and financial

capacity in less developed societies to anticipate and respond to the direct and indirect effects of

climate change makes the society as a whole more vulnerable. Developing countries do not have

mechanisms for predicting and preventing emergencies such as floods or typhoons and they also lack

the equipment and machinery to deal with the aftermath. Extreme weather events, which would cause

limited damage and few casualties in a developed country often cause extensive damage and

substantial loss of life in developing countries.

Global warming threatens as well to cause intensified water scarcity. Many regions already suffer

from water shortages. The war in Darfur is a case in point, recognised as the first conflict that is

derived by man-made global warming and in particular by the lack of water resources. Eighty per cent

of major armed conflicts in 2007 occurred in drylands (United Nations, 2011). A study titled ‘The

Forgotten Billion’ conducted by the UNCCD (United Nations Conference on Combatting

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Desertification) and the UN Development Programme in 2010 examined the spread of poverty across

different ecosystems, as one moves from areas with more natural resource endowments to those with

less. The study found out that poverty increases with aridity. To deal with the additional stress caused

by climate variability, the poor may be forced to migrate, which is always an important coping

strategy for them. This could even lead to mass migration, as well as potential conflicts and political

instability.

It is also interesting to note that vulnerability varies among the poor. Some groups of poor people and

some developing regions are more strongly exposed to the impacts of climate change than others.

Groups that hold less financial, social, and political means find it harder to secure livelihood

alternatives. Women and children are at the bottom of the development ladder. Women in particular

are often constrained by social and cultural structures that place them in inferior social positions,

limiting their access to income, education, job opportunities and participation in the society. Climate

change is expected to exacerbate current gender inequalities.

Impacts of climate change, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity also vary across different geographical

developing state regions. As examples I have chosen Africa and Latin America to illustrate how

global warming affects the life of people there, particularly amongst low-income households.

Research undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows what the

likely regional impacts of climate change are, of which some are already happening.

In Africa, increases in droughts, floods, and other extreme events would add to the strain on water

resources, food security, human health, and infrastructure, thereby constraining development.

Between 1970 and 1999 Africa had the second highest number of people affected by natural disasters,

largely due to the frequent occurrence and the long-term effects of droughts and the importance of the

agricultural sector (African Development Bank et al., 2003, p.6). Expected effects in the region are

changes in the rainfall and intensified land use, which would exacerbate the desertification process. In

addition, grain yields are expected to decrease, which would diminish food security, and the sea level

is projected to rise, which would affect coastal settlements through flooding and coastal erosion,

especially along the eastern Southern African coast. “More than one quarter of the population lives

within 100 kilometres of the coast and most of Africa’s largest cities are along coasts vulnerable to

sea level rise, coastal erosion, and extreme events”(African Development Bank et al., 2003, p.8).

Major rivers are also highly sensitive to climate variations. People’s adaptive capacity towards such

natural disasters is low due to low GDP per capita, widespread poverty, inequitable land distribution,

and low education levels. Furthermore, social safety nets are practically absent. Individual coping

strategies are also already strained, which further deepens poverty.

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In Latin America, a rise in the sea level would adversely affect coastal human settlements as well as

productive activities. Other global warming driven consequences, projected by the IPCC for the

region, are the loss and retreat of glaciers, floods and droughts, which would lead to poorer water

quality in some areas, and increases in the intensity of tropical cyclones. Nevertheless, vulnerability in

Latin America is lower and adaptability higher than in Africa as the majority of people in Africa live

below the absolute poverty line ($1.25/day according to World Bank estimations (The World Bank,

2009)), whereas in Latin America the median poverty line ($2/day in 2005 prices) more commonly

applies and Latin American countries fall under the category of middle-income states. Needless to say,

the capacity to cope with climate variability and extreme weather events is in itself highly dependent

on the level of economic development of a country. Social indicators, such as adult literacy, life

expectancy, and access to safe water also perform better in Latin America than in Africa. However,

other factors such as high infant mortality, low secondary school enrolment, and high income

inequality contribute to limiting adaptive capacity.

These two examples show that climate change needs to be recognized as a major concern with respect

to food security, water resources, natural resources productivity and biodiversity, desertification,

human health and mortality. Climate change is therefore a serious threat to poverty eradication. It can

hamper economic growth and the achievement of practically all Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs). Except for the direct impact of natural disasters on poverty, climate irregularities have an

indirect link to education. Loss of social, natural, physical, human, or financial capital may prevent

parents from sending their children to school and may occupy children’s time with other tasks.

Environmental issues are thus directly linked to existing poverty, aggravating it even further and

placing additional strains on the livelihoods and coping capabilities of the poor. This problem must be

addressed in order to enhance their adaptive capacity. Climate change adaptation, the responses to

climatic conditions that reduce vulnerability, should therefore be an integral and urgent part of overall

poverty reduction strategies. Current development strategies tend to overlook risks related to climate

change. Actions should be integrated into national policies for poverty eradication and sustainable

development, including, as this paper will make clear, the expansion of renewable energy use in

developing countries.

Energy is another component that has a direct effect on poverty levels. For a very long time the two

issues were not officially seen as interlinked by the most important global guidelines that steer

development and environment. Neither the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of

1992 (better known as the Agenda 21 or the Rio Earth Summit), nor the MDGs of the year 2000 have

explicitly outlined the necessity to adopt an integrative approach towards the two. The Johannesburg

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Plan of Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002,

revises the Rio Declaration and suggests a link. “In Chapter II, on poverty eradication, governments

agreed to improve access to reliable and affordable energy services for sustainable development, so

as to facilitate the achievement of the MDGs” (Flavin, C. & Aeck, M. H., 2008, p.6). This included also

actions to increase the use of renewables. In the May 2008 EU Council Conclusions on MDGs, the

EU commits itself to a more comprehensive poverty reduction platform that will fund cross-cutting

development issues, including also climate change and energy security (Hadfield, A. & Youngs, R.,

2008). Energy has been discussed as a key issue to development also in the most recent Green paper

on EU development policy of the European Commission (2010). At the Rio+20 United Nations

Conference on Sustainable Development, which will take a look at the achievements over the 20 years

since the signing of the Rio Declaration and the challenges that still lie ahead, “green economy in the

context of sustainable development and poverty eradication” (Sustainable Energy for All, 2012) will

be one of the two focal themes. It remains to be seen what the outcomes of the debates on the

coupling of the two issues will be.

Despite these international agreements, decision-makers do not yet sufficiently appreciate the

underlying significance of energy foundations for reaching social ends. Therefore, answering the

question why energy is so crucial for poverty reduction deserves a special attention. Energy is central

to practically all aspects of sustainable development. What people need is not energy per se, but the

services that it provides. There are two-way linkages between energy and poverty, women, health,

education, population growth, urbanisation, and lifestyles. “These global issues determine energy

consumption, and energy systems influence the issues” (UNDP, 2000, p.40). International Energy

Agency (IEA) studies point to energy use as a contributing factor to development, rather than simply

an outcome (Flavin, C. & Aeck, M. H., 2008, p.10).

For the world’s poorest people, a lack of access to modern energy services dramatically affects health,

limits opportunities, widens the gap between them and the wealthy, and increases their vulnerability.

A few graphs below serve to illustrate the direct link between energy access and other social and

economic factors. Graph 1 shows that low access to modern energy aggravates poverty levels. In Sub-

Saharan Africa in places where less than 10% of the people have access to modern fuels, the

proportion of the population that lives on less than $1 a day may reach more than 60%. Taking a look

at the education enrolment ratio (Graph 2), it is also noticeable that the percentage of those enrolled at

primary, secondary school or university increases proportionally with the increase of the access to

modern fuels. The two factors are corresponding almost 1:1, i.e. in regions where access to modern

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fuels is 90% or more (like in East Asia and the Pacific), the education enrolment ratio is also around

90%.

Graph 1: Graph 2:

Finally, Graph 3 shows how child and maternal mortality rates exacerbate with the lack of access to

electricity.

Graph 3: Graph 4:

Note: SSA –Sub-Saharan Africa

EAP – East Asia & the Pacific

LAC – Latin America & the Caribbean

Source: UNDP, adapted from UNDP and WHO(2009), pp.38-39

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The graphs, and in particular Graph 4, also illustrate that countries that develop do so in tandem with

improvements in energy access. Graph 4 shows the positive correlation between modern fuel access

and the level of UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), which is composed of human development

indicators that reflect achievements in life expectancy, being knowledgeable, and enjoying a decent

standard of living/income (measured in purchasing power parity terms) (UN-Energy, 2005, p.5). Thus,

while access to modern energy services alone is not sufficient to eradicate extreme poverty, it is a

necessary condition for improving economic and social opportunities for poor men and women.

The graphs just discussed lay a good foundation to demonstrate the importance of energy for the

MDGs. This paper does not have as a purpose to put a stress on the MDGs, therefore I will not discuss

each and every one of them, but will rather concentrate on the energy-poverty nexus, the energy-

women linkages, and energy for education. I will furthermore regard the interrelatedness of energy

with population growth and with urbanisation, as these two issues are central to sustainable

development.

One very good definition of ‘poverty’ is the following:

“Poverty refers to an individual’s (or family’s) lack of access—associated primarily

with inadequate income—to basic human needs such as food, shelter, fuel, clothing,

safe water, sanitation, health care, and education. Poverty is manifested as the

inability to achieve a minimum standard of what is needed for material well-being.”

(UNDP, 2000, p.43).

Upon this background, energy services that address poverty are those that can provide people, in the

first place, cooked food, clean drinking water, comfortable living temperature, lighting, and as next

the possibility for health care, education, transport and communications. The main restrictions for

poor households derive from the type and quality of energy that they can afford using. It appears that

the energy consumption patterns of poor people tend to add to their misery and aggravate their

poverty. Thus, “cost-effective improvements” in energy efficiency will have a considerable effect on

poverty reduction. It is, therefore, very important to consider the costs at which modern energy will be

delivered to poor households. Access relates to more than availability, it also captures factors such as

affordability and relevance. For the poor people, this implies that the price of modern energy should

be comparable to what they are willing to pay for traditional fuels in order to be compatible with their

income levels. Time freed up for activities other than collecting fuelwood is an essential gain only if

the possibilities are indeed in place for those other activities to be exercised and if this adds up to the

family income rather than reduce it. This is one of the directions in the two-way energy-poverty nexus

which explains why poverty enhances the lack of proper access to energy.

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The other direction of the linkage refers to the fact that poor energy intensifies poor living conditions.

Access to modern fuels and electricity will free up people’s resources and time for more productive

uses that can improve human welfare. Lighting, for instance, would extend the workday and provide

an environment for learning activities. Communications like radio, television, or even Internet would

also increase access to knowledge. Another very important utility function of modern energy services,

is that they are a necessary tool for improved economic activity and growth. Modern energy is

indispensable to modern irrigation technologies which would expand agricultural productivity. Bigger

harvests would also require technologies and machines for their collection. Both of these will be

factors for an increased labour productivity and more job creation. Therefore, poverty-reduction

strategies should concentrate on improving energy access and quality. Even in a growing economy,

energy poverty slows down the absorption of economic growth. A World Bank study indicates that

countries with underperforming energy systems may lose up to 1-2 per cent of growth potential

annually as a result of electric power outages, over-investment in backup electricity generators, energy

subsidies and losses, and inefficient use of scarce energy resources (OECD/IEA, 2010, p.35).

It is said that poverty has a woman’s face. Energy services can to a great extent improve the position

of women in society. When regarding the nature of linkages between energy and women, the position

of women in families and communities needs to be given special attention. Women’s work and output

is undervalued and women are underpaid relative to men for the same tasks. Women’s activities which

enable the household’s survival remain largely invisible and unacknowledged as they do not form part

of the economic output. Women are more vulnerable than men to environmental degradation, because

it often has a direct impact on their workload. They are also more likely to be directly affected by

increases in fuel prices and by scarcity. Often the only asset that women can turn to in difficult times

is their own labour. Thus, aside from the overwhelming importance of energy, in general, and modern

energy, in particular, the role of human energy and especially of women’s energy must be recognised.

Human energy conservation must be central to any energy strategy. In addition, the tendency for

women and men to use different energy services should be recognized in the design of policies and

programmes. In many developing countries, energy policy is designed in such a way that energy

resources are not equally available to all. “Industrial, commercial, urban, and male users receive

priority service and attention in energy policies. At the bottom of the list are agricultural, domestic,

rural, and female users” (UNDP, 2000, pp.47-8), and women in rural areas fall within all four of the

latter categories.

Given that most activities performed by women in developing countries, in both rural and urban areas,

are small-scale activities, as for instance agricultural and household activities, or tailoring, food

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processing and producing, a small development in technology and energy supply could greatly

enhance their productivity. What is more, women in households with electricity are more likely to

have access to information about gender issues from radio and television than women in households

without electricity. Finally, energy provides many opportunities for skill-building among women,

which would give them access to work other than their traditional household duties. I believe that

microfinance could play a crucial role therein. On the one hand, microfinance projects can be

designed so as to involve women from the local community in income-generating and socialising

activities which would improve their position in society and would allow them to purchase better

types of energy. On the other, microfinance can be used as a tool to relieve women’s burden in

collecting fuelwood. For instance, a project which would involve a few single men in collecting the

fuelwood for several households in return for some money, or cooked food for example, would reduce

the physical effort on women and give them time for income-creating occupations or for studying.

Another important relation to consider is that between energy and population growth, also in a direct

link with gender issues. The geographic distribution of population growth is uneven with “90 per cent

of the growth taking place in developing countries” (UNDP, 2000, p.51). In addition, the biggest

share of the population already lives in the developing part of the world. Increase in population will

dictate the need for even more energy, which will strain the resources available. What is more, it will

exacerbate even more the serious disparities existing between industrialised and developing countries.

Renewable energies are likely to be part of the solution as, on the one hand they represent an

alternative form of energy, and on the other, renewable energy sources are abundant in the South. The

nexus energy-population has a further side to consider – energy consumption can transform

demographic patterns. Rural societies see high fertility as a means of survival as every new member of

the family can be employed in the household – for instance in fuelwood gathering or agricultural

activities. Higher level of education would help to change the mind-set of people who are used to

relying only on tradition. More energy-efficient technologies would free up time for women to attend

school or to get involved in other socioeconomic activities, which would reduce the rate of early-

marriages and early child-births. In short, energy services promote the socioeconomic preconditions

for fertility decline. Increased energy access will also improve the conditions in which children are

born and raised, and will reduce infant mortality.

So far, this work has mostly addressed rural poverty. However, urbanisation influences profoundly the

context and processes of sustainable development and requires specifically designed measures to

address it. Urbanisation is a phenomenon that more and more affects the developing world and may

turn into a serious challenge for the citizens. “Of the 1.23 billion urban residents added to the world

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population since 1970, 84 per cent have been in less developed regions. The global population is

growing by 2.5 per cent a year, 3.5 per cent a year in less developed regions” (UNDP, 2000, p.54).

Latin America is the most urbanised region in the developing world; however Africa, despite being

the least urbanised region, is currently experiencing the highest urban growth rate. Asia, on the other

hand, contains the biggest number of people in the world and half of the world’s megacities.

Cities are the engines of economic growth and centres of employment and opportunity. Nevertheless,

poverty and disparities between classes are part of the city environment too. As they attract a large

number of people, especially in the last decades, cities are not always able to accommodate all of

them, and provide them with the jobs and infrastructure that they necessitate. On the positive side,

cities provide greater accessibility to education, services, and training, they increase the access of

residents to information and communications, and particularly benefit the women, whose interests and

demands are more easily articulated and negotiated in this dynamic social environment. On the

negative side, cities are the origins of many global environmental problems related to air and water

pollution. The type and scale of urban development will largely affect future energy consumption. In

contrast to rural societies, urban societies rely primarily on fossil fuels and electricity. As developing

countries urbanise, energy demand will increase because of, on the one hand, manufacturing and

industry in the cities which require much more energy than traditional agriculture, and on the other,

increased use of transport for the delivery of traditional bulky fuels, food and other materials to the

city. Nevertheless, “because of their concentrated form and efficiencies of scale, cities offer major

opportunities to reduce energy demand and minimise pressures on surrounding land and natural

resources” (UNDP, 2000, p.54). Energy can serve as a means for sustainable development if it is used

more efficiently and if more environmental-friendly sources are utilised, above all renewable energies.

Developing countries facing urbanisation and rapid city growth can use this opportunity to construct

sustainable cities from the outset and avoid mistakes made in some developed countries. Here, best

practices from the North, as well as South-South cooperation between developing countries, can play

a major role. This moment also provides a unique opportunity to implement leapfrogging approaches

by making use of more renewables in the energy mix of the cities. Developing countries can create

sustainable cities by taking account of two key activities in city areas – transportation and

construction. Lower-income people in the urban areas of poor countries cannot afford possessing their

own motor vehicle. This problem may be transformed into an advantage for building a green city. A

more energy-efficient transport strategy would be one that allows for the wider use of bicycles and

public transportation, especially underground, as well as for walking. Repercussions of unsustainable

transport seen in industrialised countries could thus be avoided. In addition, commuting at big

18

distances should also be averted by creating such employment possibilities as not to necessitate a lot

of travel.

In the construction area, materials such as timber, soil, sand, and stone are often used in the housing in

poorer countries. They require little energy in their manufacture and processing, and their durability

can be improved at low energy costs through appropriate construction methods and techniques. Know-

how and machinery from the developed countries could play an important role therein. Lastly, the

growth of urbanisation and the migration of people from rural to urban areas can be reduced by

creating more favourable living conditions in the rural zones. This will diminish the pressure

(environmental, economic and social) on cities.

Finally, the impact of poverty on the environment should be considered as well. The way poor people

use the environment in order to supply their households with energy has a harmful impact on the

quality of the environment. The fact that poor people do not have access to any other forms of energy

but the traditional ones leads to overexploitation of resources. Biomass is often harvested in an

unsustainable manner, contributing to environmental degradation. “Deforestation, forest degradation,

floods, landslides, topsoil erosion and low land productivity are the most visible manifestations of

unsustainable biomass harvesting” (UNDP, 2011b, p.17). According to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), fuelwood collection accounts for 6 per cent

of annual global deforestation. The extensive use of the soil for agriculture and animal-breeding

because of the lack of any other income-generating opportunities also puts pressure on local

ecosystems. Environmental damage occurs in urban areas likewise, especially in urban slums where

the poor settle. Due to outdated technology used in the industry, old automobiles, etc. serious air and

water pollution is caused. The extraction of commercial fuels like coal and oil is often also highly

damaging to the ecosystem. At the same time, lifting people out of poverty will require ensuring that

more people have better access to energy. In addition, as this paper has discussed, the number of the

population is growing and the share of people living in cities as well. All those factors taken together

will lead to a huge increase in energy consumption with an associated impact on greenhouse gas

emissions and the global environment. Therefore, I see renewable energies as an important part of the

solution to the discussed problems and raised challenges. The most effective way to achieve

sustainable development is to “mainstream climate change in development. A strategic approach

which “climate proofs” development - combining mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction

and prevention activities is crucial” (European Commission, 2010, p.16). Finally, the need to avoid

any potential conflicts between the objectives of economic development, poverty reduction and

environmental policy, will rely on efficiency in energy production, transmission, distribution and

19

consumption, and on environmentally sound energy systems, particularly new and renewable sources

of energy.

4. Barriers to expanding energy access

Analysing the challenges in front of increasing access to modern energy is essential in order to design

appropriate policies and construct relevant technologies which to address the existing energy

inequality around the world. The main barriers to providing modern, reliable and accessible energy in

the developing world, primarily in rural areas, are predominantly structural in nature: difficulties of

extending the grid, the remoteness of many areas, the incompatibility of high or volatile energy costs

with the limited economic capacity of the poor, and the limited fiscal capacity of governments to

subsidize the costs of energy.

Grid extension is indeed a necessity in the developing world, particularly in urban, peri-urban and

rural areas with high population densities, where it is often the least-cost option. Electricity and fossil

fuels rely on highly capital-intensive distribution networks, such as grids, pipelines and transport to

deliver centrally produced supplies. However, a singular focus on grid extension is not a viable option

for very remote areas, with disperse and small populations. For electricity providers grid-extension to

such areas is not economically profitable and as a result, they are reluctant to invest there. Due to low

potential electricity demand and economic development in these areas, grid extension is often not a

cost competitive option. A study of the World Bank on rural electrification programs placed the

average cost of grid extension per km at between $8,000 and $10,000, rising to around $22,000 in

difficult terrains (Alliance for Rural Electrification, 2011, p.1). Poor regulatory and investment

climate in many countries, and insufficient public investment act as further disincentives to broader

investments in rural electrification and particularly in larger-scale infrastructure and capital

equipment. Existing energy and supporting infrastructure like roads and telecommunications is often

of such poor quality that it adds significantly to the costs and difficulties of expanding access.

Even when grid lines extend close to non-electrified communities, many families cannot afford

connection costs, unless they are heavily subsidized. “Furthermore, the unsuitability of electricity for

cooking and heating in developing countries (particularly in rural areas) means that this approach

does not address the energy need which most affects people’s lives, in particular those of women and

girls”(UNDP, 2011b, p.16). The poorest families typically dedicate 80% of total household energy

expenditure to fuels for cooking and heating, and only 20% for fuels and batteries to produce light,

according to Modi et al. (as cited in UNDP, 2011b, p.16). Most rural poor also find it difficult to

20

obtain the credit necessary to pay high up-front costs for energy services. Additionally, the income

cycles of poor people living in rural areas are agriculture dependent and thus irregular. They have

therefore limited purchasing power and opportunity to shift to modern energy services. The economic

burden posed by unpredictable and small incomes on both urban and rural poor leads to their

incapacity to adhere to long-term commitments and limits the sustainability of energy access. For

these people, decentralized renewable energy technologies (RETs) are potentially the most suitable

and environmentally friendly alternatives. The Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change

(AGECC) contends that achieving universal access by 2030 will need the combination of both

centralized and decentralized energy technologies and systems for electricity provision (UNDP,

2011b, p.16).

Significant gaps in local knowledge and capacity including lack of consumer awareness, technical

skills and capabilities of the local workforce to use and maintain complex machinery and devices

further contextualize the scale and scope of the challenge. Accordingly, the provision of modern

energy services to poor communities will require the expansion of social choice of energy options of

both conventional and non-conventional sources.

5. Powering poverty reduction - the role of renewables for poverty reduction and reaching

the MDGs

5.1 Why renewables?

In the absence of economies of scale in rural areas economic efficiency arguments about large

connection grids are not applicable. A wider use of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) for

energy production in the developing countries is a viable and desirable alternative due to a number of

reasons. First of all, the exceptional renewable energy potential in those countries supplies them with

local, relatively secure resources. Secondly, the urgency of concerns over climate change and

environmental degradation together with the prospects of wider electrification in developing countries

necessitates changing the dynamics and putting increasingly focus on low-carbon energy mixes.

Falling costs and increasing investment in clean energy in recent years is yet another stimulus

(especially in the context of low-income consumers). Small-scale renewable energy technologies are

thus likely to be more cost-competitive than conventional options and a more viable alternative for

decentralized off-grid supply. Using clean energy, furthermore, can have a positive impact on people’s

health. Every year, 1.6 million people according to the World Health Report 2002 (as cited in

Intermediate Technology Development Group, 2004, p.3), mainly women and children, die from

respiratory illnesses caused by the burning of biomass and fuel. Finally, developing countries could

21

make use of the renewable energies opportunity to apply leapfrogging approaches in creating

sustainable economies, urban and rural areas and consumption practices right from the outset.

Abundance in renewables in developing countries, such as various types of biomass, geothermal

sources, wind, water, and especially sunshine, which is considered to be practically unlimited in the

long-term, means that energy can be provided at relatively low cost, making it accessible to a bigger

number of people. As a result, this will not only reduce the number of the extreme poor, but will also

create a more secure climate and prevent further wars over scarce (oil) resources. Many developing

countries are dependent on volatile oil prices, making their populations highly vulnerable. Despite that

it is not a realistic scenario to believe that such countries would give up on their oil resources, the use

of renewable energy would provide them with wider diversification giving them an additional, very

important development advantage. For those countries which are importers of fuels, renewable

energies could reduce the demand for imports, carrying along additional benefits, such as freeing

scarce resources for domestic investment and reducing the country’s long-term exposure to financial

and humanitarian crises.

In addition, the rich renewable energy potential in developing countries could prompt positive

economic spillovers generated by renewable energy development. This would not only promote

industrial development, but can also create employment. According to a World Bank discussion paper

of April 2011(p.2):

“the growth of renewable energies capacity in developing countries has been

remarkable, and associated services and equipment manufacturing industries have

already started to boom. For instance, Brazil, China, and India today are among the

top 10 countries in the world in the volume of new financing attracted for investments

in sustainable energy (with a combined US$44.2 billion in 2009, representing 37 per

cent of global financial investment in clean energy). In 2009 the RE industry in these

three countries created almost 1 million jobs […] Upper and lower middle-income

countries are also quickly progressing in the development of their renewable energy

markets.”

Increased investment and attention to renewable energies has been observed worldwide:

“During the five-year period from the end of 2004 through 2009, global renewable

energy capacity grew at the rates of 10 to 60 per cent annually for many technologies.

Investments in renewable energy increased by 63 per cent in the first quarter of 2010

compared with the same period in 2009. More than 100 countries had policy targets

or promotion policies related to renewable energy in 2010, compared to 55 in early

2005.” (UNDP, 2011b, p.16)

Projections by the IEA for the time frame from 2007 until 2030 also show that the use of renewables

will grow significantly (by 10.5 per cent for hydro, biomass and waste, and other renewables),

22

especially in comparison with that of other sources, and particularly oil (only by 0.9 per cent, see

Table 1 above). The rising demand and supply has started bringing down the costs of renewable

energy services. Nevertheless, high upfront costs would still be the principal challenge in using more

broadly RETs in developing countries. Low operation and maintenance costs of renewable energy

power systems, on the other hand, have the potential to offset the initial capital costs (Alliance for

Rural Electrification, 2011, p.1).

The flexibility that renewable energy services offer can be used as an advantage in their favour as

well. Renewables can provide enough sustainable, reliable, clean electricity to support the creation of

local business in large population areas, whilst also being able to reach the most far away and

dispersed rural areas. Renewables allow to be utilised in off-grid and mini-grid power systems which

can sustainably meet the energy needs of rural communities at an affordable price. Possible renewable

energy sources are, for instance, micro-hydro, wind, solar PV or bio-diesel. The Alliance for Rural

Electrification shares from experience that “many projects have demonstrated that decentralised

renewables are a more reliable electricity resource than grid connectivity due to the overstretched

and unreliable capacity of central systems” (Alliance for Rural Electrification, 2011, p.1). Despite the

fact that diesel-powered generators can also be used for decentralised rural electrification, “renewable

energy has distinct advantages over diesel as it has much lower running costs, uses local energy

sources, does not run out, is much cleaner and does not contribute to global warming” (Intermediate

Technology Development Group, 2004, p.7). It has to be recognised, however, that in some cases as

with battery-based solutions such as solar PV, their use is limited to low-power applications. This

paper will outline below how small-scale green innovations can help address some of the most

pressing energy needs of remote areas and poor people.

Increasingly, the energy-poverty nexus is nuanced by the pull and push effect of climate variability

and change, as discussed earlier. Weather-related impacts potentially will distort and influence the

consistency of energy access. Both the availability of traditional biomass sources and their role as a

back-up to more modern energy sources are likely to change. As stated in the ‘Sustainable Energy for

All’ initiative of the UN Secretary General launched in 2012, “urgent concerns over climate change

and environmental degradation have underscored the importance of using sustainable forms of

energy for the long-term viability of the planet”(Sustainable Energy for All Website, 2012). In

addition, the fact that more and more households in the developing countries will have to be

electrified and the projections that overall energy use will continue to grow strongly, doubling or even

tripling by 2050 (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 2008, p.12), make it inevitable

to use more widely cleaner energy options in the energy mix. In fact, “in many cases, adverse

23

environmental impacts begin well upstream of the point of energy end-use: the extraction of

commercial fuels like coal and oil is often highly damaging to local ecosystems and is an immediate

cause of land and water pollution” (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 2008, p.24).

Traditional fuels have as well certain adverse impacts on environment as discussed earlier in this

paper.

Economic and social development should be decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As

stated still in Agenda 21 of the first Rio conference, ‘sustainable development’ is about the integration

across the economic, social, and environmental strands of development. Decarbonising the electricity

sector (the second-largest source of GHG emissions, according to IEA) would lay the foundations for

more competitive industries and future economic growth. It would also give the unique opportunity to

developing states for leapfrogging.

The affluence on renewable energy sources gives a comparative advantage to developing countries

and offers them a chance for a technological leapfrogging instead of following the course of

developed countries by using expensive and polluting fossil fuels. Historically, humanity’s use of

energy has been marked by four broad trends (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World,

2008, p.5): (1) rising consumption and a transition from traditional sources of energy to commercial

forms of energy; (2) steady improvement in the power and efficiency of energy technologies; (3) a

tendency (at least for most of the 20th century) toward fuel diversification and de-carbonization; and

(4) more attention to and work towards pollution control and lower emissions. A big number of the

developing countries have not yet been through these cycles, which presents them with the chance to

skip some of them and leapfrog directly to the use of lower-carbon and more efficient energies. The

big renewable resource potential could also give a stronger political clout for these countries in world

negotiations, if wisely used.

Many countries rich in resources have in fact already realised their importance and are including them

in national energy strategies. Morocco, for instance, is expanding its wind farm and solar power

generation capacity and plans to obtain 42% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 (Arab

Water Academy, 2012). Even oil rich countries are diversifying their energy sources. The United Arab

Emirates have launched a solar park that will be worth 1,000 megawatts by 2030. Solar, wind,

hydropower, biofuels play an important role also in the national programmes of Brazil and Uganda –

the two countries which will be closely regarded in this paper. In a long-term perspective, developing

countries could even start generating export revenue from green electricity. In the development of

large-scale renewable energy projects, developing countries will initially need the technological and

know-how assistance from more developed states in the global transition to clean, low-carbon energy

24

systems. South-South cooperation is another viable option that reflects similar conditions and

experiences, which would probably better address poor people’s needs than practices from the North.

Finally, locally produced appropriate renewable energy technologies, using local resources, managed

within the communities themselves can empower communities to develop in a sustainable manner.

5.2 The sustainable energy challenge from a developing country perspective – obstacles

to producing renewable energy in the developing countries

A realistic consideration of the scenario of expanding energy access in the developing world by means

of more renewable energy production requires that the challenges to that are taken account of. Despite

the many benefits of renewable energies outlined so far, developing countries are facing a number of

obstacles to the realization of the increase in energy production by using RETs.

Most RETs are not yet sufficiently competitive and hence continue to rely on various forms of

backing. Provision of on-grid renewable energy to rural communities would necessitate suitable

government policies and public support, as well as international investment to cover the high upfront

costs. The World Bank has concluded that incentives will usually be required to motivate the private

sector to invest in providing services to the often remote and underdeveloped areas where the poor

reside (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 2008, p.39). Markets left on their own are not

likely to choose the cleanest and most efficient technologies most of the time (especially when

environmental and other externalities are not reflected in market prices).

Securing financing for more risky projects in the developing world is not an easy task. Governments

in developing countries are often in an acute lack of financial resources. Moreover, where access to

energy is lacking, other urgent human and societal needs are often unmet too, meaning that energy

needs must compete with other policy priorities. In nations where a significant portion of the

population still lacks access to basic energy services, concerns about long-term environmental

sustainability often are overshadowed by more immediate concerns about energy access and

affordability; therefore more easily available forms of energy delivery might be chosen over RETs.

Another related challenge is that the governments of many of the developing countries of which we

are speaking, are not accountable to the people and public policies are not strong enough. This means

that even in the presence of obvious benefits for the poor people and for the environment of the use of

RETs, this may not be a stimulus strong enough for governments to invest in renewable energy

projects. In resource-dependent economies, rich in oil or gas resources, the personal profit from these

25

resources for the governing elites of many of these countries would outweigh the advantages of

renewable energies.

Developing countries lack furthermore stable regulatory and administrative conditions. Without stable

and predictable rules in relation to, for instance, taxes, company law, and foreign investment, that

enable and encourage private companies, even with appropriate financial instruments in place,

investment will not take place. Legal provisions allowing open competition on electricity markets for

customer supply are also necessary.

Inadequate technical knowledge, education and training is another problem in many parts of the

developing world. As a whole, information and education about renewables is low. Governments, for

instance, still do not believe in renewable energy technologies, banks do not understand the financial

structures of renewable energy projects and do not lend to them; even local people sometimes

consider these technologies as second class ones (Rolland, 2010). Without well-trained workforce,

from electrical engineers to project managers to craftsmen, renewable energy will not be able meet its

potential. Many developing countries that are making use of their renewables are still largely

dependent on foreign experts.

Fortunately, people need only a relatively modest amount of electricity to be able to read at night,

pump a minimal amount of drinking water and listen to radio broadcasts. Mini-grids which provide

decentralized, local, off-grid utility provision are an ideal intermediary solution, especially for small

towns or large villages where enough electricity can be generated to power household use, as well as

local businesses. Another viable option to address the existing challenges, especially in the short-term,

is by means of small-scale renewable energy technologies. Delivering only as much energy as to

address people’s most pressing needs, they are likely to be the most cost-competitive with

conventional alternatives. This paper will present as follows two brand-new green innovations which

can serve as small-scale solutions.

5.3 Green innovations as small-scale solutions

There is growing evidence that investment in small and medium-scale renewable energy systems may

have more impact on improving energy services for the majority of developing countries’ population.

The figure below shows that from large to small-scale energy initiatives the level of investment is

decreasing while proportionally to that the impact on the population is increasing.

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Figure 2: Energy Pyramid in Africa

Source: Overview of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, UNIDO (http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/import/82359_Module1.pdf)

Furthermore, renewable energy technology need not solely comprise the hi-tech solutions of

industrialised countries. In providing energy to the poor, the ‘suitability of technology’ factor, in

particular the affordability to the end-user and the viability of the delivery mechanism should be

considered. In that note must be taken of the limitations of commercialized models. In many cases, in

this model, the private sector markets the product in a competitive market environment and often only

a limited number of people can afford the systems at full cost. Hence, this model may not be designed

to reach the poorest people as the final product may not be affordable to them. In developing energy

markets for poor communities, the challenge is how to support viable private sector involvement

while ensuring that benefits of the commercial energy services reach poor households and that these

services and products can be maintained.

In addition, technology should be reliable, meet the needs of end-users and be easy to be operated by

them. At the same time products should not be designed ‘for the poor’ with lower quality just to make

it cheaper, as this drives customers away. New renewable energy technologies must prove robust,

particularly in remote locations where servicing facilities may not be readily available and

maintenance would be difficult. Good practices indicate that poor people are willing to pay a bit more

for products with better quality (for instance the StoveTec experience with improved cooking stoves

showed that users want attractive and convenient stoves, and are willing to pay for them as long as

27

they meet their needs (UNDP, 2011b, p.47). In short, different energy options should be offered to

lower income, far away communities than those offered in industrialised countries.

A good example of this is Soccket, a brand new innovative solution to the problems of providing

energy to poor households in remote areas, which is still in its testing phase in several developing

countries. Soccket is a soccer ball with integrated inside a small generator of kinetic (motion) energy.

This small generator is essentially a magnet inside a metal coil that goes back and forth when the ball

is kicked during normal game play, harnessing thus kinetic energy (Uncharted Play Website, 2012).

The generated energy is stored in a capacitor and is connected to an outlet to which one can plug in

small electrical appliances such as a LED lamp or a mobile phone. For example, 30 minutes of play

would generate enough energy to power a LED light for 3 hours. This simple ball is made of foam, so

it cannot deflate, and is robust and durable enough so as to last up to 3 years in play on the rough

terrain of developing countries.

This new energy-generating device is an affordable, decentralized off-grid solution which can be

applicable to the needs of many rural communities which do not need the constant supply of energy,

but need to have at their disposal small generators for occurring needs. In addition, it can also be used

in areas with unstable on-grid electricity supply as a small-scale solution for the baseline services, thus

saving the on-grid energy for more energy-consuming needs. The cost of the ball should be 10US$

once launched on the market (Uncharted Play Website, 2012), making it an affordable solution for the

poor. The social benefits of Soccket are, first, that by connecting a LED lamp to it, it extends the

daylight which can be used for the education of children as LED lamps would produce the same

amount of light as a kerosene lamp, allowing for a few students to do their homework at the same time

(Cohen, 2012). The huge benefit of the soccer ball over kerosene lamps however is that it would

prevent respiratory problems which result from the fact that poor people are constantly exposed to the

smokes of kerosene lamps. According to statistics, living with the fumes from one kerosene lamp is

equal to smoking 40 cigarettes a day (Uncharted Play Website, 2012).

Another important benefit of the product is that it is aligned with consumers’ behaviour. Football is a

universal game which does not require special training or a change in local people’s habits, making it

easy to use the Soccket. This innovation has also the important function of empowering local people

as it allows them to be the main actors in creating energy for themselves and in solving their own

problems in a participating and fun-creating way. Gender issues are however where problems might

occur, as the football game should not perpetuate existing inequalities between women and men in

energy access. From the outset girls should be equally included in both creating the energy, i.e.

playing, and using it. The organization Uncharted Play, which promotes Soccket, is starting the

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development of a project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil under the name ‘Sharing the power’, which aims at

addressing this issue and promoting shared ownership over electricity (Cohen, 2012).

Another innovation that responds many of the reviewed above considerations is a medical solar

suitcase. Designed as assistance to poor, remote communities, the suitcase is a mobile, decentralized

form of energy as essentially it is a portable, robust, complete solar electric kit packed with solar

panels, a charge controller, batteries, medical LED lights, phone chargers, headlamps, and a fetal

monitor (We Care Solar Website, 2012). The “Solar Suitcase” is critical for saving women and

children’s lives in many low resource areas without reliable electricity where hospitals are lacking

proper conditions. In addition to being resistant, the portable suitcase displays low maintenance as

there are no fuses to replace, and no regular battery maintenance is required, battery replacement is

estimated to occur once every 2 years. The suitcase is furthermore affordable and available to local

communities as it is simple to use and easy to deploy, which makes it effective for medical settings. In

terms of its simplicity, the system is plug-and-play and can be installed without need for an

experienced solar technician - one switch turns on the system, another turns on lights and charges

devices (We Care Solar Website, 2012). The suitcase is a cost-effective solution for off-grid medical

clinics equipping them with solar power for medical and surgical lighting, walkie-talkies and essential

medical devices such as a blood bank refrigerator. The “Solar Suitcase” was originally designed to

support timely and efficiently emergency obstetric care, but can be used in a range of medical and

humanitarian settings. The product was first designed in 2009 for a major municipal hospital in

Northern Nigeria and has currently been provided to clinics in 17 countries in Africa, Central

America, Asia and in Haiti (We Care Solar Website, 2012). The solar suitcase empowers local

healthcare workers allowing them to perform their profession and provide a good, often live-saving,

care to their patients. Healthcare workers using the “Solar Suitcase” have reported greater facility and

ease in conducting procedures, especially night-time ones.

6. Case studies: Brazil and Uganda. Opportunities for South-South cooperation and

learning

The two case studies that follow have been chosen to illustrate the arguments made so far in this work.

Purposefully the countries have been selected to differ from each other in terms of development,

economic growth, geography and resources. All these factors influence the quantity and quality of

energy services available and above all the access to energy. The energy mix in the two countries is

discussed with a manifest focus on the share of renewable energies and the importance that they have

29

in energy policies. As it will become noticeable the poverty-energy nexus is stronger in Uganda where

the poverty is also more widespread than in Brazil, a middle-income country and an emerging

economy. The barriers to expanding renewable energy production and access in both countries are

also examined. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.

6.1 Brazil

Brazil is a special case in terms of renewable energies. The country’s unique geographical resources

make it stand out in worldwide statistics on the use of renewable energies as part of the country’s

energy mix. Essentially, the country has the potential and does use almost all obtainable forms of

renewable energies. According to Brazil's Energy Research Company, EPE (Empresa de Pesquisa

Energética) Brazil’s renewable sources accounted for 44.8% of its energy demands in 2010 (Machado,

2011). At the same time, the world average is still around 13%, and Europe’s long-term goal is to

reach 20% green energy by 2020. In that respect, Brazil is already quite advanced. Furthermore, in

terms of electricity Brazil already meets 83% of its needs from renewable means and has been

recognised as "one of the lowest carbon electricity matrices in the world" (Yapp, 2011). The Pew

Environment Group's 2010 report ‘Who is Winning the Clean Energy Race?’ places Brazil at sixth

position among G-20 members for investments in clean energy and second only to China among

emerging economies. Brazil is also among the top 10 countries in terms of the amount of GDP

invested in clean energy. The South American state is also one of the very few countries in the world

where renewable energy projects are competitive with more mature energy generation sources such as

gas-fired power plants.

Three types of renewable energies are mainly used to produce electricity in Brazil: hydro power,

biomass and wind power (see Chart 1). Contrary to what one would generally expect, despite the

affluent Sun resources, solar energy is still in its infancy. The reason behind is the higher final price

for this type of energy in comparison to other forms of green energy. An interesting project currently

taking place in preparation for the 2014 World Cup is refitting stadiums with solar cells to generate

power (GTZ, n.d.). In the near future, it is expected that solar power projects will as well become

commercially viable in Brazil, once the technology develops and prices fall.

30

Chart 1: Electricity supply by source in Brazil - 2010

For the time being, however, hydropower is the main energy source which has been rising steadily

since the 1970s. In the electricity sector about 74% (in year 2010) of the electricity supply is produced

from hydropower. Exactly due to the presence of large hydropower plants, Brazil has one of the

cleanest energy matrices in the world. The most recent hydropower project will have a significant

potential; according to Brazil's Energy Research Company, the plant will be capable of supplying

enough power to 18 million homes housing 60 million people, though in reality much of its output is

likely to go towards the industry. The Belo Monte dam, to be built on the River Xingu in the state of

Pará, Amazon, is due to start generating power in January 2015 and to function with its full potential

by January 2019 (Yapp, 2011). The project is as well part of the government's Accelerated Growth

Programme, which aims to improve infrastructure through projects that also generate jobs and

development.

Hydropower has become, however, highly controversial in the last years and has faced a lot of public

resistance. Despite producing a green form of energy, hydro dams use enormous water resources for

which vast areas need to be restructured to build reservoirs, causing substantial environmental

problems. As a lot of the hydroelectric plants are constructed in the Amazon region, conflicts arise in

addition because of the displacement of indigenous population. Various human rights groups have

protested against the Brazilian government for not protecting local people’s rights in its decision to

build the Belo Monte dam (Frayssinet, 2011). Dry seasons may also lead to unstable or even

insufficient energy supply. It is claimed that even Belo Monte, despite being the world's third biggest

such plant, will achieve less than 30% of its capacity during the dry season.

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As hydropower is losing public support, another green source is gaining momentum in Brazil – the

wind energy. Currently, wind energy is only about 1% (end of 2011), but according to a wind project

manager from the Brazilian energy company “LEME Engenharia” (Plaisant, 2011), there are several

good reasons why wind power is rising. To begin with, the country offers first-class wind sites with

some of the strongest and most consistent winds in the world and 9,650 km of Atlantic coastline.

Three are the main wind regions in Brazil: the Northeast with the states of Ceará, Rio Grande do

Norte, etc., Bahia in the North and the South state of Rio Grande do Sul. Another big advantage of the

country in comparison to, for instance, many wind-rich European countries, is the abundance of space.

This facilitates the building of wind farms and does not drive public protest, such as the one observed

in Europe, as wind farms are not built close to where people live and therefore do not cause noise

disturbances. What is more, agriculture is often compatible with wind farms, so areas used for farming

can remain as such. Other benefits of the wind energy are its low final price (Brazilian wind energy is

one of the cheapest in the world) and the fact that this type of energy source is relatively fast to

construct. Compared to other alternatives such as gas-fired, biomass, hydro plants, a wind farm takes

just a few years to build. In addition, since there is not (yet) public resistance to that energy source,

licensing is easier than for other energy generation types.

Projections by the Renewable Energy World Magazine report as well that the proportion of Brazil's

electricity supply from hydropower is expected to fall from 75 per cent of the total as it is currently, to

some 67 per cent in 2020 (Yapp, 2011). Meanwhile, wind power would make a huge leap and would

supply 7% by 2020, according to the plans, which together with other sources, such as biomass and

small-scale hydropower would maintain the overall contribution of renewables to electricity at 83 per

cent. Therefore, the nation's vast and almost entirely untapped wind potential is beginning to be

explored and to attract Brazilian as well as international investors.

Finally, a few per cents of Brazilian electricity supply are derived from biomass, mainly sugar cane.

Bio resources are very widespread on the market for fuels. According to the Pew Environment

Group's 2010 report ‘Who is Winning the Clean Energy Race?’ which analyses G-20 countries’

investments in clean energy, Brazil has currently the second largest national biofuel market and is first

in terms of resources readily available for further expansion. The country is an important oil

and gas producer in the region and the oil industry is in a rise due to the vast offshore fields

discovered deep under the ocean, but it is also the world's second largest ethanol fuel producer. That is

why ethanol is a key element in meeting Brazil's energy needs. The proportion of total national energy

consumption accounted for by oil and its derivatives is predicted to fall from 38.1% in 2010 to 31.9 %

in 2020, according to Brazil's Energy Research Company, EPE (Yapp, 2011). Despite the fact that

32

nation's fleet of vehicles is increasing, the number of the flexible-fuel vehicles that are able to run on

gasoline, ethanol or any mixture of the two is rising as well. Thus, since "ethanol is more

competitive… consumers with flexi-cars prefer to use ethanol", says Mauricio Tolmasquim, the

president of EPE. He suggests that Brazil will not have to follow the trend that nearly all oil producer

countries follow, namely that they are big carbon emitters. Mr Tolmasquim predicts that Brazil will be

"the first oil exporter country in the world that will have a very renewable energy matrix itself" and

that it will be "a strategic partner for the western countries that need a lot of oil. It is a democratic

country with a good regulatory framework…and it will be very important in terms of stabilising the

supply of oil" (Yapp, 2011).

Together with this champion’s results in the proportion of green energy, it has to be recognised that

Brazil is as well the 10th largest energy consumer in the world and the largest in South America.

Furthermore, demand for energy is expected to increase at a rising pace by around 60 per cent in the

next decade (Yapp, 2011) due to several reasons. The economic boom of this emerging economy will

necessitate more energy for both the industry and the increasing middle class. Millions of people will

be spending more on consumer goods for their homes and cars. Ahead of the biggest world sports

events – the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games, a lot of the existing infrastructure will have

to be improved and new one built. On the other hand, this offers a unique possibility to build right

from the outset green sustainable buildings. Last but by no means least, the country has a positive

growth rate of more than 1% per year and the population is expected to reach 205 million in 2020. All

those factors taken together show why Brazil would need large amounts of energy in a very short

term. To meet this challenge, it will need to increase its energy supplies. The Brazilian Ministry of

Mines and Energy has committed to invest in renewable energy projects more than half of the finance

allotted to energy for the next decade. However, the increase in energy production will demand

favourable climate for renewable energy companies from within the country and from abroad. The

interviewed for this paper project manager of “LEME Engenharia” shared several big barriers to the

fast growth of renewable energy in Brazil, and more specifically wind energy, which, as already

stated, is projected to take higher and higher portions in the clean mix.

On the first place, Brazil’s bureaucracy is quite cumbersome. Often too many licenses are required

and a big amount of paperwork needs to be done. Obscurity about landowners increases the difficulty

for companies as they need to sign a contract with landowners in order to construct wind farms on

their land. In the Northeast of Brazil often several private persons would claim to be the proprietors of

the land as this is not well documented. Brazilian market is in addition very protective and nearly all

materials need to be locally produced and not imported. Foreign suppliers are eligible for funding

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from BNDES, the Brazilian state development bank, as long as they commit that at least 60 per cent of

the equipment, such as generators and others, will be manufactured in Brazil. This may act as a

disincentive or an obstacle for a lot of international companies to operate on the market. In terms of

development of the country however, in the opinion of the author, it has to be recognised that this

policy helps in creating more jobs and increasing local production and economic growth.

Additional work for the companies derives from grid connection problems. Wind farms are

constructed not very close to places with available transmission lines, so renewable energy companies

have to construct a transmission line as well, which could be up to several kilometres long and which

adds to the costs. In the opinion of the interviewee, the Brazilian ‘energy auctions system’ needs a

revision as well as currently it is profiting neither investors, nor the final consumer. According to this

system, auctions for renewable energy projects are made once or twice a year on which always the

most financially efficient projects are selected. Despite the fact that this may bring cheaper energy to

the final consumer, at the same time it leaves some regions without electricity at all as delivering

energy to those regions would be more costly and companies are not willing to engage there. In the

case of wind projects, only the three regions mentioned above, with the most constant and strongest

wind, receive the chance to be supplied with wind energy. Wind energy generation in less windy sites

would be more expensive to the producer, which would raise the final price and would lower

significantly the chances of the project to be selected during the energy auction. Stronger state support

for unexplored renewable sources, such as solar power, would also be a way to increase the use of

renewables in the energy matrix.

Finally, cultural differences in working methods matter as well. The slow working rhythm in Brazil

could sometimes be discouraging.

It is interesting and indispensable to explore in the end if these big amounts of renewable energy in

Brazil are accessible to the poor people. Fortunately, most poor people in Brazil live near the big

cities, which are connected to the national grid. Approximately twenty million Brazilians, however,

who live in remote communities, do not have access to reliable electrical power. The majority of them

reside in Brazil’s Northeast and the remainder dwell all over the country - even in the well-developed

states on the South and Southeast. These communities rely on small diesel generators to supply power

for basic public services such as water pumping, communications, lighting for schools, and vaccine

storage for health clinics, as well as for small businesses. Important challenges remain, primarily due

to the great levels of inequality and disparity in Brazilian society and among geographic

regions. Nevertheless, effort has been invested in attempts to improve this situation. Many of the wind

projects competing at auction are located in Brazil's poverty-stricken Northeast region, in states such

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as Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte. "Wind is transforming areas in the northeast that were

importing energy from the south" (Yapp, 2011), states Pedro Perrelli, executive director of

the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABE Eolica). In his opinion, those regions have the potential

to even become energy exporters in the future.

The interviewed wind project manager sees however the effect of renewable energies (more

specifically wind power) on reducing poverty at the moment as limited. He agrees that problems such

as social exclusion, social inequalities, and poverty can be reduced by means of more renewable

energies; however certain changes need to be made to the current state of affairs. One such change is

in the auctions system, as already mentioned, where the state should take account of the socially

unequal regions and stimulate production and supply of renewable energy there. Another important

issue is to create opportunities for small businesses and local producers to take advantage of the

production and access to renewable energy. Several small businesses have benefitted from the large-

scale wind projects, such as restaurants, hotels, as well as local labour force employed for the

maintenance of the wind farms. Nonetheless, material and human resources are usually coming from

big international – European or American, or Brazilian companies.

In that respect, I consider that energy producing companies themselves can be of great help to the

local community if they exercise certain corporate social responsibility and invest some of their profits

in local small-scale projects. Indeed, some companies have assumed certain responsibility to the

disadvantaged groups. GDF Suez, the mother company of “LEME Engenharia”, has a special

programme called ‘Energy Assistance’, dedicated to benefitting communities which do not enjoy

basic energy services. Projects primarily take place in Africa, but some of its projects have been

accomplished also in Brazil and they include: Revamping of industrial electrical installation in

Valente, Bahia, Revamping of LV installation for training centre in Rio, New transformer and

revamping of LV installation in centre for elderly people in Belo Horizonte.

According to a Trade Guide to Renewable Energy in Brazil, produced by USAID and the global non-

profit organization that addresses rural development, Winrock International, the “Government of

Brazil considers universal access to safe, affordable energy a central component in its fight against

inequality and rural poverty”(Winrock International et al., 2002, p.V). In line with that, the Brazilian

government has initiated various projects with the goal of providing electricity to disadvantaged

groups. PRODEEM – the Programme for Energy Development of States and Municipalities - was

initiated in 1994 and is still in force (Galdino & Lima, 2002). The Programme aims to take electricity

to agricultural communities using renewable sources. Since poor rural communities are far away from

conventional electric systems the cost of transmission and distribution lines extension is high, due to

35

several factors: large distances, vegetation, rivers, etc. In addition, the expected energy consumption is

very low. The purpose of PRODEEM is to compensate for the non-viability of these areas by using

mainly photovoltaic systems (PV). Three types of stand-alone systems have been considered: PV

electric energy generation systems, PV water pumping systems and PV public lighting systems. The

government procures the necessary equipment and distributes it to the states and municipalities chosen

for projects. The projects focus on community development (schools, community centres, health

facilities) rather than household electrification. The systems have been installed throughout all 26

Brazilian Federal States, but especially in the less-developed Northeast and North (Amazon) regions

of the country. According to CEPEL – a Brazilian Electric Power Research Centre - this programme

can be considered as a useful experience to be shared with other international institutions running

similar PV programs around the developing world (Galdino & Lima, 2002).

Another project - ‘Ribeirinhas’ - aims to study the technical, economic, social and environmental

viability of providing energy to small, rural communities particularly in the Amazon region, using

microsystems that provide renewable energy in a sustainable manner (Eletrobras, 2007). Due to their

remoteness, particular type of soil, vegetation and rain regime, riverside communities do not allow the

grid extension to them. A big part of the Amazonian population lives in dispersed communities of

only about 20 houses built along the river. These riverside communities are extremely far away from

big production centres, they use the river as a means of transport and live exclusively on fish and

agriculture, and product exchange between communities. Because of these very specific conditions,

they require particular methods of energy provision and renewable energies existing in Amazonia

were thus considered as the most appropriate means. In the initial phase of the project different

alternative technologies for energy supply have been studied, taking into consideration the viability

and sustainability of each of them. These have been: hydrokinetic systems, hydroelectric micro

stations, biomass, and photovoltaic systems.

‘Luz para Todos’ (Light for Everyone) is another programme that deserves attention. Despite that it

does not use renewables only it demonstrates the ambition of the government of Brazil to provide the

poor with electricity. As of today, the programme has been going on for 8 years and has reached 14.3

million Brazilians. It has provided access to energy for free for 2.8 million households in rural

communities (Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil, 2011). The main objective has been to allow the

population in rural regions to use electricity in a productive way, turning it thus into a social and

economic vector reducing poverty and hunger. The programme has allowed for many families that

have migrated to the city to go back to agriculture. Thanks to it, many households were able to afford

goods that they previously could not, such as TV sets and refrigerators. Although the initial goal of

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supplying with electricity 10 million Brazilians was reached in 2009, the programme goes on and has

as its current objective to reach until 2014 the indigenous people and the most remote places. The

programme has so far invested 19 billion Brazilian reals and has created 426 thousand job places.

Finally, the programme ‘Luz no Campo’ (Light in the Countryside) is the largest rural electrification

program undertaken in Brazil (World Resources Institute 1, n.d.). ‘Luz no Campo’ intended to

electrify one million rural homes in a three year period between 1999 and 2002. Following the

programme, rural consumers were expected to pay the full costs of the connection spread over a

number of years. The ‘Light in the Countryside’ programme was ended in 2004 and its goals were

incorporated in the ‘Light for Everyone’ initiative.

In the opinion of the author, Brazil can use its potential as a booming economy and the fact that the

number of rich people is growing to establish a certain solidarity mechanism. Such a mechanism

would charge at a higher price the consumption of electricity over certain KW used and would utilize

this additional money for the provision of electricity to very poor or remotely located people. Such a

policy would also stimulate the more economical use of energy among the wealthy.

As an emerging economy with one of the world’s highest GDPs, Brazil is definitely gaining more

leverage in negotiations and has a key role to play in addressing global challenges such as the

economic crisis, but also climate change and the achievement of the MDGs. Brazil has the potential to

become a leading actor in South-South cooperation sharing its experience and best practices in the

field of renewable energies with other countries from the South. The country is already active in

South-South learning contributing to other developing countries with its own good practices in social

policies. The country has already signed an India-Brazil-South Africa Declaration on Clean Energy.

The wind energy expert interviewed believes that the implementation of the large scale power plants

can be repeated also in Brazil’s neighbouring countries. “The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA)

trilateral development initiative began in 2003 to promote South-South initiatives on development,

trade/investment, information exchange and cooperation in areas including agriculture, energy,

health, and climate change” (World Resources Institute 2, n.d.). On the second IBSA summit held in

2007 the three countries reached an agreement to promote clean energy technologies and renewable

energies, and to pool resources to ensure a secure supply of safe, sustainable and non-polluting energy

to meet global demand, particularly in developing countries. At the current state of affairs however,

triangular cooperation with a more advanced in technology country, as for example Germany, Canada

or the USA, is probably a more viable alternative. Brazil is still lagging behind on know-how and

capacity-building is still often coming from the outside, for instance from the EU.

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6.2 Uganda

Uganda has one of the lowest per capita electricity consumption rates in the world, only about

75KWh/year. The goal of Uganda’s National Energy Policy from September 2002 is to meet the

energy needs of Uganda’s population for social and economic development in an environmentally

sustainable manner (MEMD, 2011, p.84). Adding to that, the Renewable Energy Policy for Uganda

approved by the Cabinet in March 2007 aims at diversifying supply sources and technologies in the

country and has as its goal the increase in the use of modern renewable energy from the current 4% to

61% of the total energy consumption by the year 2017 (MEMD, 2007, p.7). Members of the

Parliament have made access to energy the ‘9th Millennium Development Goal’ for the country, and

established a new national Energy Fund. More than US$150 million have been invested in renewable

energy as a result, representing more than 2% of the national budget (Climate Parliament, n.d.).

Although over 90% of the final energy demand in Uganda is biomass, it is used only as a traditional

source of energy for heating and lighting. Another main source of energy in Uganda is hydro power

plants along the Nile which provide electricity through the national grid. Nevertheless, they are an

insecure source of energy as the water level has decreased in the past years and therefore currently

they produce less than their full capacity. Despite the fact that Uganda is very rich in renewable

energy resources, such as small hydro, solar, wind and geothermal sources, they remain largely

untapped. Currently, solar energy is mainly used in so-called ‘solar home systems’, which however

have a capacity of only about 1MW. Other forms of modern energy sources used in the country are

the imported oil, and thermal diesel power plants.

The reason behind the Ugandan government’s decision to invest in renewable energies is, on the one

hand, the recognition that a number of renewable energy technologies have become commercially

viable, and on the other, the major challenges that the country is facing in meeting people’s energy

needs, especially of the poor (MEMD, 2007, p.12). The emergency installation of thermal diesel

generation because of droughts and the fall of Lake Victoria water level, and the escalating oil prices

have resulted in increased prices for the final consumer. Renewable energies, especially small scale

ones such as mini/micro/pico hydros, PV systems, wind power and biomass could be an alternative

solution for the provision of electricity to rural areas where currently the electrification rate lies at

only 3%. Locally produced bio-fuels would reduce the burden on the economy caused by imported

fuels. Last but not least, the Government’s commitment under the Kyoto protocol to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the fight against climate change prompts it to increase the

level of renewable energies in the energy mix. In particular, the Government “would want to provide

38

the necessary framework for private sector investors in renewable energy projects to benefit from the

available facilities in emissions trading” (MEMD, 2007, p.12). Thus, renewable energies become a

priority for the Government, to be used as alternatives, or definitely in the beginning as supplements

to the conventional sources. Such a diversification of energy supply sources and mechanisms would

be of strategic importance as it promotes energy security and independence. It would enable,

furthermore, renewable energy technologies to be incorporated as part of the national energy

conservation programme. For instance, widespread installation of compact fluorescent lighting and

solar water heating in residential, industrial and commercial buildings can create significant energy

savings, and therefore encourage optimal utilization of energy resources (MEMD, 2007, p.13).

It is important to analyse the government’s policy objectives and actions towards its long-term goal of

increasing the level of modern renewable energy and of access to energy by the poor. In its Energy

and Mineral Sector Performance Report 2008/9-2010/11, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral

Development (MEMD) of Uganda states that it “has contributed to poverty reduction efforts through

increasing access to modern energy sources, oil and gas products and exploitation of the mineral

resources for wealth creation and improved standard of living” (MEMD, 2011, p.252). In addition,

the report declares that the increase in energy supply has boosted the investment opportunities in the

country and has offered new possibilities for job creation and income generation. Among the policy

objectives outlined in the government’s Renewable Energy Policy for Uganda (MEMD, 2007, p.17)

are: mainstreaming poverty eradication, equitable distribution and gender issues in renewable energy

strategies; improving the legal, institutional and financing framework to promote renewable energy

investments; raising public awareness and attracting investments in renewable energy sources and

technologies; and promoting research and development, international cooperation, and technology

transfer. The strategies to achieve these policy objectives have been translated into policy actions in

the form of specific programmes such as, for instance, the large hydropower and small power

generation programme. Within the small power schemes, basic studies of the various resources and

sites will be carried out followed by promotion and tendering to the private sector, followed by their

development. This will cover mini hydropower schemes, biomass cogeneration, wind power, peat,

geothermal and solar thermal electric. A special programme is dedicated to rural and urban poor

electricity access as this type of target groups requires special packages to make connections and

services affordable. The idea of the programme is to enhance community schemes, where the cost of

connection is subsidized. It will also support the development of independent grids supplied by micro

and pico hydros and biomass gasifiers to be managed by communities, and solar PV systems in

dispersed remote settlements. Another focus of the programme is electrification for productive uses

39

and key social services, some of the existing examples being the opening of a hairdresser’s in a place

where access to electricity has been provided.

Another notable programme, with which the government aims to extend the grid to rural areas

unattractive for private investors, is the Energy for Rural Transformation Project (ERT). Four main

actions are aimed at within the framework of ERT, two of them being related to renewable energy:

grid extension, independent grids, solar PV systems, and renewable energy generation projects

(MEMD, 2011, pp. 85-87).

In a personal interview with an energy adviser from GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit) (Kondev, 2011) working on renewable energy projects in Uganda, he talked about

some of the projects on which GIZ is working in cooperation with Uganda’s Rural Electrification

Agency (REA). GIZ is actively involved in projects of the type ‘small power schemes’ mentioned

above. The organisation explores the hydro potential of different water sources, so as to define

whether the construction of a hydro power plant would be viable in those areas. In addition, it delivers

technology and is doing planning. The subsequent phase of the projects is institutionalisation by

tendering to companies which would invest in the development of hydro power plants for rural

electrification. The overall objectives of the organisation’s Promotion of Renewable Energy and

Energy Efficiency Programme (PREEEP) is improvement of the access to modern energy services and

efficient use of energy by households and the private sector, especially in Northern Uganda. GIZ’s

focus is on the development of mini-grid based renewable energy which is better suited to the

conditions of rural Uganda, namely the remoteness of many areas and the small number of people

living there. However, the organisation has encountered a lot of obstacles at utility level. GIZ is thus

trying to find private sector investors who to manage the mini-grid, for instance to collect bills or to

perform maintenance. So far, GIZ has created one mini-grid based hydro power plant and a few other

projects of pico or mini hydro power plants are about to be launched. The construction of the plants is

carried out by the government of Uganda with German cooperation (represented by the GIZ), whereas

the operation of the systems is left to the local community. In certain cases villages are also taking

part in the construction of the power plants with the so-called ‘in-kind contribution’. The whole

process starts with mobilisation of people who to be investors in the projects, who become responsible

for the exploitation, construction and development. This practice is in line with experience from other

energy projects around the world which shows that a community-based approach in which local

communities are involved while designing and installing the product often better ensures longevity

and feasibility of the rural energy services. The active participation of local communities is very

important for their acceptance of and knowledge about the product, and finally its active use. Handing

40

over the energy device/installation to the community only upon its completion risks the alienation of

the community from the product or the inefficient use of it.

A few working places have been created in the course of the GIZ projects related to the exploitation of

the projects – for instance security and collection of bills. Capacity-building also takes place as people

are trained how to operate the grid in case of a break-down. Most of the materials however are

imported from abroad – European or Chinese companies, and only few of them, as for instance the

columns, are produced in Uganda.

Another project of GIZ, a very innovative one, still in a test phase, is the so-called ‘pre-paid

metering’. This service is planned to work in the same way as basically the pre-paid phone cards work

– households could pre-pay certain amount of electricity and use it as long as it is exhausted. In view

of a problem discussed earlier in this work – the fact that poor people usually do not dispose of

constant revenues and find it hard to make savings and long-term planning, the author of this work

sees a great potential in this project. As many of the people who live in rural areas such as farmers,

fishermen or herders do not need constant electricity supply, this innovation represents a good

opportunity for them to pay only for the time they actually consume electricity. Another plus is the

fact that poor households would be able to see the advantage of the access to electricity and would

probably be more willing to further invest in that. According to the energy advisor interviewed

(Kondev, 2011), currently there are places with access to the network, but where the people cannot

afford connecting to it. In faraway regions the final price of electricity ends up being $2 per KW,

whereas normally it is 14 cents per KW. For a country with widespread poverty and a big number of

people living on less than $1.25 a day, the ‘pre-paid metering’ might be one of the very few options

for getting electricity access. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the author of this work, certain challenges

should be considered as well, as for instance the risk of unsustainability. As access to electricity can

allow for certain development, for instance education, free time and social participation for women,

health improvement, or electricity-driven job-creation in the local community, such a pre-paid service

could disrupt this development when the poor people would lack budget to pay further for it.

Another viable alternative of supplying poor households living in remote areas with energy, described

by the interviewed expert, is through micro-financing. For instance, by making use of micro-financing

someone in the village buys a solar panel and uses it to provide services to the rest of the village, such

as charging their cell phones. People would then pay to him for the energy services. This example

shows how by means of renewable energies the rural population can be supplied with energy without

the need for large state or business investments for grid extension and construction.

41

Despite all, both the energy advisor interviewed and the Energy and Mineral Sector Performance

Report 2008/9-2010/11 share that financing of renewable energy projects for rural electrification has

turned out to be a challenge. Although the government has provided one of the best frameworks for

renewable energies in Africa, private sector interest in grid extension to rural areas has not been

sufficient. The quite high interest rates of about 15-16% are also unattractive to the private sector, and

for micro-financing for households the interest rates go up to 40%. Public financing had therefore to

be availed. In addition to appropriations from the Government of Uganda, donor support to the Rural

Electrification Fund (REF) from donors such as GIZ, the World Bank and others, is one of the very

important sources of funding. Feed-in-tariffs have also been introduced not long ago; however the

government has not had enough finances to put that policy in practice. In addition, most renewable

energy technologies have much higher upfront investment costs, compared to other conventional

energy options. Affordability of consumers is thus not very big, especially in rural areas and the

financing mechanisms to address that are scarce. For foreign investors administrative and licensing

problems are also an impediment. Together with that, legal and institutional frameworks to support

new renewable energy investments are still inadequate. Uganda lacks, in addition, sufficient technical

and institutional capacity, and training, research and development in the renewable energy sector.

Finally, there is limited awareness and information of the availability, benefits and opportunities of

renewable energy within the public domain. A drawback of the current government’s policies and

projects that the interviewee also notes is that the attention is on big industries and big hydropower

plants, whereas less is being done for the remote poor areas. A lot of investments have been put in

diesel plants in order to create constant electricity supply for the businesses, which has reduced the

means available for renewable energy. All these considerations will inevitably act as barriers to the

increased production and use of renewable energy in the African state.

As in the case of Brazil, South-South cooperation is a plausible scenario, however in the case of

Uganda, the country would be a beneficiary rather than a contributor. Some projects for solar-water

heaters have been going on with Mexico, and the possibilities for wind energy have been explored,

where the country could profit from the Kenyan rich experience. China has been also quite active in

trying to enter the energy market in Uganda, and there are two power plants from Sri Lanka.

Despite the many positive sides renewable energies have and the fact that the Ugandan government is

persuaded in them, at this point in time renewable energy seems rather unaffordable for a big part of

the population in Uganda and especially rural areas which are the main target groups of increased

energy access. Even though they are the focus in many governmental programmes, real actions have

so far concentrated on assuring constant electricity supply to the industry and on large grids for more

42

populated areas. Nevertheless, the paces made by the government, international organisations and

local people towards broader energy access and wider use of renewable should not be neglected and

should be regarded as a good starting point.

These two case studies show a contrast in terms of both the access to energy and the chances of

increasing that access by raising the proportion of renewable energy. Brazil is much more advanced in

the energy production and the use of RETs for energy, and has a substantially smaller percentage of

the population without energy access. Its example will be difficult to emulate, however, due to the

uniqueness of the country in terms of geography and resources available, and due to the fact that the

use of renewables for energy is not a new phenomenon for Brazil – hydropower has been produced for

decades already. Uganda, despite being also rich in renewable energy resources, has not so far made

such an efficient use of them. Nevertheless, what is noticeable is that both countries have incentives

for using RETs and have made steps towards that, including specially designated programmes for

delivering renewable energy to the poor. Many challenges still lie ahead of both, and especially in

front of Uganda, in which, due to the nature of the problems and the similarities between developing

countries, South-South cooperation and learning could potentially play a key role. In that Brazil would

most probably be on the side of a know-how provider, whereas Uganda would be a beneficiary.

7. Conclusion

It has been estimated that the amount of electricity required to make it possible for people to read at

night, pump a minimal amount of drinking water and listen to radio broadcasts amounts to just

50 kWh per person per year. Poor people in developing countries, especially in rural areas, differ in

the ends for which they use energy and in their payment cycles from people in developed countries. In

other words, the level of energy consumption necessary and affordable to them is far below that of the

average citizen in an industrialized country. In the absence of economies of scale in rural and remote

areas, energy production and access could and should not be defined by macro considerations alone.

To greatly improve the quality of life for many poor households, reduce poverty, increase the level of

education and healthcare in developing countries, small amounts of energy would initially be

sufficient.

Renewable energies seem to be the most appropriate option to address the current issues of lack of

access to energy and the shortages and inequalities that this creates. Many of the technologies

necessary for generating renewable energy (wind, hydro, solar power and biofuels, among others) are

already available. However the challenges lie in how to further improve these techniques and adapt

43

them to specific local and cultural needs of developing countries, and how to deliver the energy at

affordable to them prices. This work has suggested several options for increasing energy production

and access in developing countries by means of renewable energies. Depending on the potential and

needs of the country, and in particular of the poor people, there could be large-scale projects such as

wind energy farms in Brazil, or small-scale technologies for rural and remote areas, such as the soccer

ball ‘Soccket’, or the solar medical suitcase.

Taking a realistic look one should recognize that existing limitations such as financing, red-tape, or

lack of public awareness, do not allow at the current stage for the use of only or predominantly

renewable energies in many of the developing countries. Non-conventional sources of energy have to

complement conventional ones; decentralized solutions need to be offered along centralized ones.

With view of the impacts of the climate change, the low energy access and the energy-poverty-

environment nexus, the long-term goal has to be however an increased use of renewable energies in

the energy mix of developing countries.

44

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Annex I

Interview questions for the two case studies – Brazil and Uganda

1) What has recently been done to provide more and better energy services to the developing

countries?

2) What are the barriers – e.g. political, economic, technological, institutional – that obstruct the

expansion of renewable energies in the developing world or that you have encountered when

trying to supply developing countries with renewable energies ?

2) What in your opinion can be improved? And can something be improved (if for instance the

regime is not cooperative, that might be difficult to change)?

3) Do you see some negative sides in providing the developing countries with renewable

energies? Are they accessible?

4) Do you think that problems such as social exclusion and social inequalities can be reduced by

means of more renewable energies?

5) Would you be ready to supply certain remote villages/places, or to make the prices of the

energy accessible to the poor as part of your projects? Or if more projects are guaranteed to

you by the EC, for instance?

6) Do you see any signs of South-South cooperation, can some lessons drawn from your work be

used in other developing countries?

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Annex II

Interview questions for ‘Soccket’ at Uncharted Play

1) Why is ‘Soccket’ an innovative solution to the problem of providing energy to poor

households in developing countries?

2) What are the advantages/benefits of this alternative form of energy?

3) Is ‘Soccket’ available and affordable to the poor people in developing countries?

4) How can local structures and people help popularize the product?

5) Is the product going to equally benefit boys and girls?

6) What are the positive externalities of the use of ‘Soccket’?