Experiences of Community Wind Electrification Projects in Bolivia: Evaluation and Improvements for Future Projects

Abstract

Currently, early in the XXI century, an estimated 2400 million people depend on traditional biomass for heating and cooking and 1500 million people lack access to electricity (IEA, 2009). Lack of electricity particularly affects rural areas of developing countries (Kanagawa and Nakata, 2008), exacerbating the urban-rural gap. In Bolivia, 35% of the population, more than 3.5 million people do not have access to electricity. Electrification systems based on renewable energy have proved being adequate to provide decentralized electricity to isolated rural communities around the world (Chaureya et al., 2004). These autonomous systems are often much cheaper than the interconnected grid extension and use local resources, avoiding external dependencies which, in turn, promotes long-term sustainability of projects. In particular, micro-wind systems are an alternative with great potential to generate power in rural areas (Lew, 2000), although their use has been limited to date. In South America, a significant institutional effort was made in Argentina to develop rural electrification projects using wind energy in the province of Chubut (Seitz, 2006). In Peru, there are some demonstrative projects of the use of wind power to electrify isolated communities, the first one in El Alumbre (Ferrer-Marti et al., 2010). In Bolivia, the government's policies on rural electrification are governed by the Rural Electrification Regulation, which states that the Department of Energy is responsible for promoting sustainable development, seeking expanded coverage of electricity services throughout the country. Therefore it has the responsibility to update and develop the rural energy strategy, including the Indicative Rural Electrification Plan to facilitate the work of agents in the development of rural electrification. The basic principles that are taken into account are: