National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Sustainable Sources

Rural Nepal needs to focus on sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

A village in rural hills : Need for customized energy source

The diverse and rugged topography of the country means that full grid connection of each and every household of each and every villages is practically impossible.

Despite the presence of tremendous hydropower potentials, the people of Nepal have not witnessed big transformation in their villages due to the extreme nature of their country’s topography. The scattered and secluded villages are far apart; and, therefore, not feasible for central grid connection, according to experts.

Till now, only 18 percent of the total population has access to electricity. The National Planning Commission (NPC) states that this segment has reached to 40 percent.

Out of the total energy consumption by fuel type in the country the whopping 75.78 percent is occupied by fuel wood alone. The electricity occupies only 1.47 percent in total energy consumption with petroleum products occupying over 9 percent and so on.

This data shows that majority of population have still not used electricity as their primary energy source.

“Our villages and communities are so diverse and so unique that no single solution can work for all of them. Attempting to join all the villages to a central grid is next to impossible. We have to customize our efforts aimed at every single village,” said Surya Man Shakya, Director of Research and Development, Pokhara University's School of Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. Shakya, who is also a senior official at the Local Development Ministry, added, “This is where alternative sources like solar, wind and others can play vital role.”

“At present, 30,000 rural households are being connected to national electricity grid every year. In contrast distributed energy systems supply 45,000 new households every year with access to biogas, micro hydro or SHS,” said Shakya. “Around 300,000 rural house holds have access to grid electricity while 500,000 families have access to distributed energy systems.”

According to him, Nepal has immense potential of tapping solar energy. The country has, on average, 6.9 sunshine hours per day totaling 2482 sunshine hours per year. The solar energy potential here is around 4.5 kwh/sq. m./ day. “In South Asia we are next only to Pakistan in terms of this potential,” he said.

Likewise, although there has been no proper wind mapping as yet, places like Jumla, Khumbu, Mustang, Palpa, Ramechhap and Karnali-Chisapani have the potentials, said Shakya.

The Tenth Plan of the government (2003-2008) also recognizes the importance of solar energy. It aims to generate 3.7 MW of solar energy benefiting 52 districts with 52,000 Solar Energy Systems distributions. Likewise, it aims to install 2700 units of solar dryer/cooker in 20 districts.

The Tenth Plan also has the objective of implementing 100 solar drinking water supply and small irrigation projects in 15 districts. It also plans to do wind rose mapping in 20 districts and generating 20 KW of electricity from wind.

“These objectives are not ambitious and they indicate how we can provide clean energy to millions of our rural population. By adopting participatory approach, such small scale clean energy initiatives are going to play key role in the development of the country,” said Shakya.

Of late, clean energy sources like solar and wind power have begun to get more and more attention. Even our neighboring countries are doing a lot to develop these sources. In China, US$ 37.5 billion was invested in 2002 to general solar electricity. In India, also they are achieving success in tapping these sources particularly in northeastern region.

Experts and environmentalists agree that Nepal, too, should reorient its focus on developing solar and wind power in pocket areas to provide sustainable energy to rural households. “When we cannot provide hydroelectricity to remote corners of the country, we could at least develop pocket projects of solar/wind power there. For instance, providing clean energy to places like Khumbu will substantially bring down the practices of felling trees for fuel wood and will arrest the deforestation of precious high altitude ecosystem,” said an environmentalist.