Energy consumption pattern and renewable energy alternatives in Madi Kalyanpur, Chitwan, Nepal

Does the use of Solar Home Systems (SHS) contribute to climate protection?

Solar energy brightens lives and strengthens the resilience of geographically challenged communities in Bangladesh

Globally, rates of electrification and clean cooking are low, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Off-grid energy solutions have a vital role to play in accelerating clean energy access to address Sustainable Development Goal 7. For organisations aiming to provide both electricity and cooking services, there is a need for holistic studies on adoption determinants to aid market expansion. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of the adoption determinants and barriers for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), solar home systems (SHS) and electric cooking (e-cooking) in Sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 40 adoption determinants were identified across the 71 publications examined. Of these, 30 determinants were shared by at least two of the technologies, whilst six were specifically linked to LPG and four to SHS. Key determinants that cut across technologies included reliability of alternative technologies (such as grid supply), reliable energy supply through the technology in question, affordability, household size and location (urban/rural). The findings show that there is an overlap in the demographics that use these technologies, as urban households often use SHS as a backup to the electricity grid and their cooking needs can feasibly be met by LPG or e-cooking devices. There is a clear opportunity for e-cooking devices to be sold as appliances for SHS. E-cooking devices such as electric pressure cookers can be complementary to LPG due to their suitability for cooking different foods. Pay-as-you-go models, which have a proven track record with improving access to SHS and are beginning to also be applied to LPG, have the potential to provide a strong foundation for scaling up of LPG and e-cooking services.

Solar home systems (SHS) represent one of the most promising technologies for a rapid and independent electrification in those areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) without access to electricity. This study addressed the environmental impact of SHS in SSA through updated life cycle inventories and five impact categories: greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, fossil fuels, metal and water depletion and human toxicity. Sixteen scenarios were considered, including manufacturing, transportation, recycling and user-related variables, such as the installation site, adequacy of SHS user operation and battery lifespan. The results showed that lead-acid batteries were the largest contributor to environmental impact among the SHS components, accounting for up to 36–76% of the environmental impact indicators. Apart from the components, user training for SHS operation, with the goal of maximizing usable energy and battery lifetime, proved to be critical to achieve improvements in the energy payback time and GHG emissions, which (under scenarios of high solar resources) can reach the range of 5.3–7.1 years and 0.14–0.18 kgCO2 eq/kWh, respectively. In addition, SHS GHG emission factors were benchmarked with those of other electrification approaches, such as national grids, 100% PV and hybrid PV-diesel off-grid mini grids and off-grid diesel generators. SHS achieved GHG emission factor values equivalent to PV-based mini grids in most scenarios and was strikingly lower compared to SSA national grids and diesel generators.

Urban residential energy switching in China between 1980 and 2014 prevents 2.2 million premature deaths

Rooftop solar photovoltaics have the potential to successfully electrify rural and scattered communities worldwide. However, access to clean, high-quality, reliable and affordable energy remains elusive for several households in rural areas of the developing world. To fully comprehend, unpack and proffer meaningful solutions to this mismatch, energy sources in use and types in areas where rural electrification through solar home systems are profiled. Furthermore, grassroot communities’ perceptions of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PVs) was explored. A case study design was adopted. Thirty (30) households were purposively sampled from three selected villages. Their perceptions on the adoption of solar photovoltaic home systems were analysed qualitatively using Atlas ti 8 software. Thematic network analysis was pursued. Households in the chosen villages use grid connections, paraffin, solar PV, firewood and candles to meet their energy needs. The chosen villages used energy for water heating, refrigeration, cooking, illumination, space heating, entertainment and ironing at the household level. In general, the participating households perceived solar PVs as a relatively cheap, easy-to-use, environmentally friendly alternative energy, and did not demand regular payments once installed. However, there was a discerning perception that solar was a weak technology that could not be relied on because it produces an inferior quality of energy, could be easily stolen and needed high capital investment beyond the reach of many consumers. The results obtained in this study highlight that the solar home system (SHS) rollout should be sensitive to rural communities’ financial situations and be innovative in that low-income households are included. In addition, there is a need for a robust awareness programme that highlights the energy availability, reliability, quality, cost effectiveness and legal, health and safety benefits of the SHS to the rural families in the district.

In Pirak Mertosutan Hamlet, Sleman, Yogyakarta, there is a goat farm complex with about 600 m2. The intricate lighting comes from the National Electricity Company (PLN) and the Solar Home System (SHS). SHS is the primary energy source for lighting, while PLN is a secondary energy source that replaces it when the power supply from SHS goes out. So far, the transfer from SHS to PLN has been carried out by humans. This fact is considered inefficient because the SHS supply does not always die during the day. At night, the officers who move the difficulties have to go to the cage complex located relatively far from residential areas. To facilitate the transfer of energy sources from SHS to PLN and vice versa. It does not need to be done by officers. It is necessary to automatically install a means to automatically move the two sources automatically. This tool is the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS). This tool can move the energy supply from SHS to PLN and vice versa. By considering the specifications used in the SHS in the farm complex, the ATS is made and then installed in the farm complex. After the installation is carried out, the functional test is carried out. The ATS installation test results show that the ATS can work according to the design; namely, when the SHS is off, the source used is automatically switched to PLN. When the SHS is on, the source that was using PLN will automatically switch to SHS.

The Maphephetheni area is a unique area. First of all, it was the first rural area with Photovoltaic (PV) experience in KwaZulu-Natal. In 1996 a project was started by Solar Engineering Services to install Solar Home Systems (SHSs) in 50 households in this area. Secondly, Maphephetheni is now one of the few areas with both SHSs and grid accessibility. This survey investigated the experiences of households with access to both SHS and grid electricity. Specific objectives included comparing the usage of grid electricity and SHSs; to compare the daily lives of the households when using the SHS and using grid electricity; and to find out if a SHS is seen as an inferior energy source. All six households that qualified were interviewed, two households with grid electricity and a functioning SHS and 4 households with grid access but a non-functioning SHS. The survey was conducted through structured interviews of approximately one hour, with some space for unstructured discussion to express feelings about the usage of the different kinds of energy sources. There was a warm welcome in most of the families and they loved to talk about the subject. Results indicated that SHSs were not seen as inferior energy sources in the rural area of Maphephetheni. Half of the households preferred SHS to grid electricity, and all households were very content about the working of the SHS, while there were some complaints about the functioning of the grid. All those families who did not have a working SHS at the moment wanted it fixed. The households themselves did not have the feeling that much changed after they accessed the grid, but the equipment used with electricity increased, as did the number of lights in use. Refrigeration, cooking and bulk water heating changed slightly because most families already had a refrigerator before they accessed the grid (a move from gas to electricity), and cooking and water heating were still mostly done with paraffin. Kettles were now used for making tea.

In Bangladesh, 55% of the population are getting electricity from the national grid. Mostly diesel generators supply the electricity to the off-grid regions. Use of diesel leads to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which is a big environmental concern all over the world. Solar Home Systems (SHSs) offer promising solution to the areas that are not connected to the grid. More than 3.6 million SHSs are installed in remote locations across the country. Most SHSs in Bangladesh use small tube lights as the lighting source. However, the recent SHSs make use of LED bulbs instead of the tube lights in order to decrease the PV panel size which would lower the initial capital cost and annualized cost. In this study, two different Solar Home Systems were analysed having tube lights and LED bulbs as the lighting source, respectively. Each of the SHSs consists of 6 lights (Tube light/LED bulb) and 2 fans with operating hours of 4 daily. The analysis shows that the SHS with tube lights requires initial capital cost of $432, which is 48% higher than the system having LED bulbs as the lighting source. As the SHSs do not use any fossil fuel, there is no operational GHG emission. However, a large amount of energy is used to manufacture PV panels, which needs to be quantified to understand the environmental impact. Energy consumption to manufacture the solar panels of Solar Home System with LED bulbs is 1.44 MWht which is 25% lower than the SHS with tube lights.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the causal relationship between liquefied petroleum gas consumption and economic growth in Cameroon over the period from 1975 to 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of this study is based on the unit root, cointegration and causality tests. Cointegration is performed with both Johansen and autoregressive distributed lag bounds approach, while causality is done with the Granger test based on the error correction model (ECM) and Toda-Yamamoto procedure.FindingsThe cointegration methods confirm the existence of a level relationship, whereas the causal tests of the ECM reveal the existence of a short-run unidirectional causal relationship ranging from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption to economic growth and a bidirectional causal relationship between long-term and high-causality variables. With the Toda-Yamamoto procedure, unidirectional causality is found to run from economic growth to liquefied petroleum gas consumption.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings imply that an increase in liquefied petroleum gas consumption leads to an increase in economic growth. As a result, supporting energy efficiency policies that aim to reduce liquefied petroleum gas consumption is not an option for Cameroon. Given that LPG consumption shares are still low in Cameroon, the government ought, thus, to increase LPG subsidization, vulgarize and favor policies aimed at encouraging LPG consumption to increase LPG deposits nationwide. This would help increase LPG consumption and consequently could increase economic growth in Cameroon.Originality/valueLPG is a fossil fuel and is the less GHG emitter and it is considered as a modern source of energy for cooking in Cameroon households. It scarcity calls on energy policymakers to question the influence LPG consumption could have on economic growth in the short- and long-run. Thus, this paper could contribute to solving the issue of deforestation in Cameroon, especially in the Sahel zone; through the substitution of firewood consumption by LPG consumption in households.

The impact of liquefied petroleum gas usage on air quality in Mexico City

This paper aims to scrutinize the validity of the greenhouse emissions-induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, controlling for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption, FDI inflows, and trade openness, in the context of six South Asian economies. Besides, the impacts of LPG use on both aggregate and disaggregated emissions of greenhouse gases are also evaluated. Using annual data from 1980 to 2016, the elasticity estimates from the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) regression analysis confirms the authenticity of the EKC hypothesis for Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. In the cases of Pakistan and Nepal, economic growth, in the long-run, is evidenced to monotonically increase and decrease the greenhouse emissions, respectively. However, LPG consumption is found to homogenously reduce all types of greenhouse emissions in each of the selectedSouth Asian nations. Moreover, in majority of the cases, statistical evidence of joint favorable impacts of economic growth and LPG consumption on the environmentare ascertained. Furthermore, the Hacker and Hatemi-J bootstrapped causality analysis finds causal relationships between economic growth, greenhouse emissions, and LPG consumption. However, the causality estimates are found to be heterogeneous across the different South Asian nationsconsidered in the analysis. The results, in a nutshell, denote that economic growth is both the cause and the solution to the greenhouse emission problems faced by the South Asian economies. Moreover, the results also assert that LPG can be a transitional fuel to reduce these emissions before the South Asian nations are ready to undergo transition from non-renewable to renewable energy consumption.Hence, the findings impose key fuel-diversification policy implicationsfor the South Asian governments.

Electrification is one of the most crucial factors to ensure social and economic growth in Bangladesh. Being in a developing country, people from various districts of Bangladesh have been experiencing electricity crisis due to the increasing daily demand for power, which outweighs the supply of on-grid electricity. It is noted that about 30 percent of 160 million people, majority living in the rural areas are out of electricity connection in Bangladesh. Consequently, the shortage of energy hampers socioeconomic development and lowers living standards of people. Since, non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels and natural gas, the primary sources of energy production in Bangladesh, are limited, usage of renewable energy technology such as solar energy efficiently can satisfy the rising energy demand and in turn improve the existing energy shortage situation. This study found that Bangladesh has been implementing Solar Home System (SHS) programs that contribute in achieving the target to reach electricity to its every citizen by 2020. As of June 2017 a total of 262,515 households do have solar home systems from which an estimated 1.6 million people are benefitted. This article is written based on a research conducted in the districts of southwest coastal region of Bangladesh where a total of 5.1 million people live of which on an average 42.6 percent are poor and 24.9 percent are extreme poor. In-depth interviews, group discussions, key informant interviews, and household survey were used for collection of data to explore the impacts of SHS on the livelihoods of coastal people of Bangladesh. This research found that impacts of Solar Home System services are both immediate and long-term oriented. SHS program contributes enriching all kinds of livelihoods assets such as human, social, financial and physical of the SHS customers. The poor and extreme poor people of climate vulnerable villages of southwest coastal region of Bangladesh are benefited in different ways from SHS programs such as save daily expenditures for kerosene, doing income generating activities in evening hours by both male and female members of family, children sit for study regularly, women feel safety from lightening of house, they can charge cell phone, they have access to weather forecasting, their social status upgraded, and they save money because they do not need to pay bill for electricity. The SHS is one time investment and they customer can pay for SHS package in installments. As the SHS program approach is environment and poor people friendly, its impacts on livelihoods are found sustainable.

This study aimed to evaluate the environmental impact of using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in small fishing vessels by conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA) in Korea. For the first time in the country, LPG engines designed for small fishing ships were utilized in this study. In addition, this research examined the potential benefits of employing Bio LPG, a renewable LPG produced from two distinct raw materials (crude palm oil (CPO) and refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palm oil), instead of conventional LPG. The LCA findings reveal that utilizing LPG fuel in small fishing vessels can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more than 30% over conventional gasoline and diesel fuels. During the life cycle of vessels that use LPG fuel instead of gasoline and diesel fuels, there is a reduction of 2.2 and 1.2 million tons of GHG emissions, respectively. Moreover, substituting conventional fossil fuels with Bio LPG can result in over 65% reduction in GHG emissions. For the life cycle of boats that use Bio LPG fuel in place of gasoline and diesel fuels, the reduction of GHG emissions was 4.9 million tons and 2.5 million tons for CPO and 5.2 million tons and 2.7 million tons for RBD, respectively. This study not only underscores the substantial advantages of using Bio LPG over conventional fossil fuels but also presents conventional LPG as a way to reduce GHG emissions and promote sustainable practices in the fishing industry.

Acceptance and willingness to pay for solar home system: Survey evidence from northern area of Pakistan