Climate Action 2011-2012

climate policy, Governance & Finance
solar
© APEX BP Solar
If access to energy is achieved with environmentall sound technologies,
it directly contributes to global environmental sustainability.
Off-grid renewable energy:
an immediate solution to
energy poverty
60 climateactionprogramme.org
By Simon Rolland, Secretary General, Alliance for Rural
Electrification (ARE)
According to the IEA, which has published the figures
that are going to have authority in the energy access world
for years to come, it was estimated that in 2008, 1.5 billion
people, or 22 per cent of the world’s population, had no
access to electricity. Eighty-five per cent of these live in
rural areas. Two regions in particular suffer this deprivation.
Despite the efforts of the international community, the
overall situation in Africa has got worse, mainly because
of population growth that has outpaced the slight
increases in electrification rates. Southern Asia, in spite
of impressive progress (more than 200 million people got
access during the last decade), still harbours the biggest
group of unelectrified people in the world.
We can never be reminded too often of the role
that energy, and more specifically electricity, plays in
development. Energy alone is not sufficient to alleviate
poverty, but it is certainly necessary and there will be no
major development progress without a growing number
of people gaining sustainable access. Energy poverty is the
most ‘horizontal’ issue of all; energy access is not one of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but a vital
requirement for progress towards them. Access to modern
energy helps to reduce hunger and facilitates access to safe
drinking water through food preservation and pumping
systems (MDG 1); It can improve education by providing
light and communication tools (MDG 2); it can lead to
more gender equality by relieving women of fuel and water
collecting tasks (MDG 3); it contributes to the reduction of
child and maternal mortality and the incidences of disease
by enabling refrigeration of medication as well as access to
modern equipment, and it helps fighting pandemics such as
HIV (MDG 4, 5, 6). Finally, if access to energy is achieved
with environmentally sound technologies, it directly
contributes to global environmental sustainability (MDG 8).
RuRal electRicity pRovision
There are three basic approaches to bringing electricity to
remote areas. The first approach is simply to extend the
national grid; however, this is at best a long-term hope
in many countries. Often national utilities are already
struggling with grid stabilisation, and concentrating on
increasing generation capacity to match the demand of
growing populations in the urban centres. Costly extensions
to rural areas are a long way down the priorities (According
to the World Bank/ESMAP, grid extension prices vary
from US$6,340/km in a densely populated country such
as Bangladesh to US$19,070/km in a country like Mali).
Therefore, in many countries, the grid is not a viable option
even in the medium or long term.
The second approach is based on off-grid technologies.
The dispersed character of rural settlements is an ideal setting
for these solutions in particular with renewable energy (RE)
sources that are more competitive in remote communities,
and help to reduce the power losses of long transmission