The importance of access to modern energy has been well understood by governments and donor agencies in many developing countries, and significant effort has been made in recent years to address energy access challenges. However, despite these efforts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that the energy access problem will remain unresolved by 2030. Therefore, adequate and appropriate action is needed to resolve this problem more quickly. This dissertation analyses policies and their impacts and will help researchers and policy makers in developing countries to (i) understand the impact of policies in the formation of a renewable energy (RE) market, (ii) consider the determinants of technological choices when promoting access to energy services and, (iii) better appreciate the sustainability performance of rural energy. For the purpose of analysis, several country cases from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa region were carried out as these are the two main regions where the energy access problem are most acute. To understand the impact of policies in the formation of RE based rural electrification market, a case study was conducted in Nepal. The study has shown that rural electrification has been expanding as a consequence of market-oriented policies. When it comes to selection of electrification path-ways, different technological alternatives are analysed in Afghanistan and Nepal, taking levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) as the means to select cost effective options. The analysis has presented best-fit conditions for these various technological pathways in the two countries and verified whether they are following the appropriate and cost effective course in their efforts to expand rural electrification. For understanding the determinants of cooking fuel choices and to analyse policy implications in the transition of large populations from traditional to modern fuels, fuel choices are modelled in the case of China. Choices are modelled (using MESSAGE–ACCESS mod-el) with standard economic variables such as income, technology costs and fuel prices, along with some unique variable such as inconvenience costs. Future access scenarios are designed considering different policy options to accelerate the transition. Sustainability is one of the key concerns in terms of energy access. This dissertation introduces methods for evaluating (i) the sustainability performance of energy technologies and (ii) the status and progress of developing countries in providing sustainable energy access. Different sets of sustainability indicators are considered for the rural energy sector and aggregated to form a single composite index. The energy technology sustainability index (ETSI) is used for assessing the performance of different energy technological systems in the case of India. The analysis reveals that mature technologies such as biomass gasifiers, biogas and micro hydro have relatively better sustainability performance among the options considered, while solar and wind, though showing fairly good improvement in sustainability performance, still have difficulties competing with more mature and conventional technologies without policy support. The Energy Sustainability Index (ESI) has been applied to China, India, South Africa, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Ghana between 1990 and 2010 to evaluate the status and progress made by these countries in rural energy sustainability. The analysis suggests that South Africa’s rural energy sustainability index is highest followed by China, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Ghana respectively. The rural energy sustainability has improved relatively over time in all countries except Ghana. The dissertation shows that policies are helping the rapid expansion of the RE market though with uneven penetration in rural Nepal. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanism are perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification, requiring innovation. The electrification pathways taken by Nepal seem functional and moving in the right direction but some flaws in the delivery mechanisms require attention. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, pathways are not well defined and the country lacks a clear-cut national policy framework for the expansion of rural electrification. The analysis on fuel transition shows that even a fast developing country such as China will continue to have serious problems guaranteeing the access to solid fuels for cooking for one third of its rural population by 2030. The problem could be more severe in poorer nations. There-fore, further policy intervention addressing the high implicit discount rate of the poorer section of the population, reducing the upfront cost of more efficient technology (stoves) or the costs of cleaner fuels with subsidies must be considered to promote energy transition. Overall, this dissertation has analysed key issues in the global discussion about sustainable energy access. The methods for sustainability assessment suggested have been specially designed for rural settings in developing countries and are instrumental to assess the performance of rural energy technologies and track the progress of sustainable energy access efforts among rural households. / <p>QC 20140210</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-10-20Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:01:56Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 barros_rc_dr_botfca.pdf: 1218929 bytes, checksum: 6c805e9ebc41df7fb712b8ff8562dacf (MD5) / Com o fenômeno da globalização e da unificação dos mercados, novas oportunidades de negócio surgiram, exigindo dos produtores o incremento da qualidade dos serviços e o controle preciso das operações, reduzindo o custo operacional. Neste novo cenário, as propriedades rurais estão passando por grandes mudanças, transformando-se em verdadeiras empresas rurais. Cada vez mais este novo modelo econômico prima pela qualidade e pela sustentabilidade do agronegócio. Para tal, é necessário um sistema que auxilie o produtor rural a administrar o seu negócio. A maioria dos estudos estão focados em levantamento financeiro e esquecem que é essencial para a agricultura definir o Balanço Energético e determinar a sua eficiência. Vários trabalhos propostos comparam duas formas produtivas em uma determinada região, mas não existe um estudo em nível nacional. O presente trabalho propõe um modelo de sistema de informação que abrange a parte energética do agronegócio, bem como o envio destas informações para uma base centralizada, a fim de obter o modelo energético rural brasileiro. Com isto, será possível determinar o Balanço Energético e as formas mais eficientes de plantio no agronegócio. O sistema proposto é dividido em dois módulos. O primeiro é voltado aos pequenos produtores rurais, no intuito de ajuda-los na administração rural, disponibilizando relatórios gerencias para que o produtor conheça o desempenho energético do sistema agrícola implantado, podendo maximizar os resultados energéticos e melhorar a eficiência da produção. O segundo módulo é composto de um software de analise de dados, recebendo os dados enviados pelos produtores e construindo uma base nacional de informação a respeito dos resultados energéticos, podendo comparar a eficiência dos sistemas de plantio... / With the phenomenon of globalization and the unification of markets, new business opportunities have emerged, requiring producers to increase service quality and precise control of operations, reducing operating cost. In this new senary, farms are undergoing major changes, transforming themselves into true rural businesses. Increasingly, this new economic model strives for quality and sustainability of agribusiness. For such a system is needed to assist the farmer to manage your business. Most studies are focused on raising financial and forget that agriculture is essential to define the energy balance and determine its efficiency. Several studies comparing two proposed forms of production in a given region, but there is a nationwide study. This paper proposes a model of information system that covers the energy part of agribusiness, as well as sending this information to a centralized database in order to get the Brazilian rural energy model. With this, you can determine the energy balance and more efficient ways of planting in agribusiness. The proposed system is divided into two modules. The first is geared to small farmers in order to aid them in farm management, providing management reports for the producer to meet the energy performance of the agricultural system in place, the results can maximize energy and improve production efficiency. The second module consists of a software data analysis, receiving the data sent by the producers and building a national information regarding the results of energy and can compare the efficiency of cropping systems in certain regions or making a historical analysis, comparing performance over the years

Energy is an important input for various activities that provide impetus to economic, human and social development of any country. Among all the energy carriers, electricity is the most important and sought after energy carrier for its quality, versatility and ability to perform various technology driven end-use activities. Therefore access to electricity is considered as the single most important indicator determining the energy poverty levels prevailing in a country. Demand for electricity has increased significantly, especially in the developing countries, in recent years due to growth in population and intensification of economic activities. Therefore, providing quality and reliable electricity supply at low-cost has become one of the most pressing challenges facing the developing world. Although sufficient efforts have gone into addressing this issue, little progress has been made in finding a satisfactory solution in alleviating this problem. Currently, electricity supply is mostly dependent on centralized large-scale power generation. These centralized systems are strongly supply focused, fossil-fuel intensive, capital intensive, and rely on large-distance transmission and distribution systems. This results in electricity cost becoming unaffordable to the majority poor which comprises more than 70% of the total population in developing countries like India and the benefits of quality energy remaining with the rich, giving rise to inequitable distribution of energy. Continuous exploitation of fossil fuels has also contributed to local and global pollution. Therefore it is necessary to explore alternate means of providing energy access such that the energy carriers are clean, easy to use, environmentally benign and affordable to the majority of the rural poor. India is at a critical juncture of passing through the path of development. India is also in a unique position that its vast majority of rural population is energy poor which is disconnected from the electricity grid. In this context, the proposed research is an attempt towards developing a greater understanding on the issue of rural energy access and providing a possible solution for addressing this gap. This has been proposed to be achieved by adopting a decentralized energy planning approach and distributed energy systems mostly based on renewable energy sources. This is expected to reduce dependence on imported energy, promote self-reliance, provide economically viable energy services for rural applications and be environmentally safe. The focus is limited to biomass energy route which has many advantages; it is a geographically equitably distributed resource, geographical advantage of having potential to setup energy systems at any location where vegetation is present and not seasonal like other renewable energy technologies. A mathematical model-based approach is developed to assess the feasibility of such a proposal. Models are developed for performing biomass resource assessment, estimating end-use-wise hourly demand for electricity, performing capacity and location planning and assessing economic feasibility. This methodological framework was validated through a case study developed for the district of Tumkur in the state of Karnataka (a state in southern region of India). The literature survey was conducted exhaustively covering the whole span of supplyside and demand-side management of electricity systems, and grid-connected and stand-alone power generation systems, their technical, economic and environmental feasibilities. Literature pertinent to GIS applications in biomass assessment, facility location planning and scheduling models were also reviewed to discern how optimal capacity, location and economic dispatch strategy was formulated. Through the literature survey it was understood that there were very few attempts to integrate both demand-side management and supply-side management aspects in the rural energy context. GIS based mathematical models were sparsely used in rural energy planning and decision making. The current research is an attempt to bridge these gaps. The focus in this study is on effectively utilizing the locally available biomass resource. Assessment of Biomass Potential for Power Generation As a first step, the supply option was studied at village level by overlaying LULC (land use land cover) and village boundary GIS maps of Tumkur district. The result was fortified by the NDVI results from remote sensing images of land use pattern in Tumkur district. A detailed village-level assessment of wasteland potential was made for the entire district. The result showed which shows that in Tumkur district, roughly 17.3% of total geographical land was under exploitable wasteland. Using secondary data and literature, biomass potential indices were prepared for different wasteland types to determine the total biomass potential for power generation. The results based on the GIS data the assessment shows that Tumkur has roughly 17.3% of exploitable wasteland. A complete village-level annual power generation potential was assessed considering both energy plantations from wasteland, existing degraded forests and crop residues. Assessment of end-use-wise hourly Demand for Electricity at Village Level Household survey was conducted for 170 sample households randomly chosen from 15 villages, again randomly selected to represent different socio-economic categories. Using statistical tools like k-means clustering, one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test, first the households were classified into three economic categories to study the distribution of the households in each sample village. Later based on the number of households of each type in a village, the villages were further classified into five groups based on their socio-economic status. This was done to select the right representative per-household power demand for a village of any particular socioeconomic category. The representative per household power demand in each economic category along with secondary data helped in deriving the electricity daily load profiles for all the villages. Representative demand profiles were generated for different seasons across different sectors namely domestic, agriculture and industry sectors at the end-use level comprising of activities like home lighting, appliances, irrigation pump sets operation and small industry operations. Mathematical Modeling for Optimal Siting of Biomass Energy Systems Since the power has to be generated through biomass route, biomass may have to be transported over a large geographical area which requires efficient design of logistic systems. Apart from that, a major component of cost of biomass power is the cost of transportation of biomass from source to the power plant. Therefore it is important to determine the optimal siting of biomass energy systems to minimize the cost of transportation. Since these optimal locations are based on minimizing Euclidian distance, installing the power generation systems at these locations would also minimize total cost of local transmission and distribution. In order to locate the biomass energy system, K-medoid clustering algorithm was used to determine the optimal number of clusters of villages to minimize the Euclidean distance between the medoid of the cluster and the villages within the cluster, and minimize the total installed capacity to meet the cluster demand. The clustering algorithm was modified in such a way that the total capital cost of the power generation system installation was minimized. Since the total project cost not only depended on capital cost alone, but also on biomass transportation and power transmission costs, these costs were also included in the analysis. It was proposed to locate the energy systems at the medoids of the clusters. Optimal Capacity Planning Installing biomass power systems requires large investments. It is therefore necessary to reduce the peak demand to bring down the installed capacity required. This was achieved by developing heuristics to arrive at an optimal scheduling scheme of the end-use activities that would minimize the peak demand. The heuristics procedure was demonstrated on five representative villages, each from different economic category. The optimal demand profile was used as input in HOMER micro-energy system simulation software to perform a techno-economic analysis. The simulation facilitated a thorough economic feasibility study of the system. This included a complete analysis of the cash inflows and outflows, capital cost of the system, operation and maintenance cost, cost of fuel and estimation of total GHG emissions. There are many limitations in planning at village-scale. The results indicated that capacity planning done at the village level was prone to over-estimation of installed capacity of the system increasing the investment requirement, under utilization of the capacity and suffered from supply scarcity of biomass. This emphasized the need for looking at a bigger conglomerate of villages in other words cluster of villages. In the next step, the optimal capacity planning was performed for one of the clusters formed using the K-medoid clustering algorithm with the power generation system located at the medoid. For demonstrating the practical feasibility of extending the methodology to cluster level, a cluster with maximum number of villages was chosen from the optimal cluster set in the k-medoid algorithm output. The planning was conducted according to the socioconomic category of the villages in the cluster. Economic implications of Stand-alone (SA) vs Grid-connected (GC) Mode of Operation Other important question that was answered in this analysis was a comparison of GC systems with SA systems. Since extension of grid to a village that is not electrified involved drawing high voltage transmission lines from the nearest grid point, installation of distribution transformers and low transmission lines within the village for distribution. Since these involve high costs it was necessary to study whether or not it is feasible to extend the grid or install a stand-alone system. This question was answered by the breakeven distance for which grid extension becomes more economical than a SA system. For each village breakeven distance varied with the total installed capacity and the operational costs. This helped to compare the GC systems vis-à-vis SA systems from the point of view of economic feasibility. Summary It is necessary that planning and strategies be rational and reasonable for effectively assuaging the rural electrification imbroglio. The current study has highlighted the importance of integrating both demand-side-management and supply-sidemanagement of energy systems in the context of planning for power generation and distribution in rural areas. The key findings in the current study are: • The study showed the feasibility of biomass power systems in meeting the rural electricity needs. • Biomass assessment results showed that, if the power demand could be brought down by replacing the existing appliances with efficient ones (ex. compact fluorescent lamps and improved irrigation pump set valves), Tumkur district has enough biomass potential to meet both the current as well as increased future demands for electricity. • The optimal number of clusters minimizing total capital cost of biomass energy systems, transportation cost of biomass and distribution cost of power, was 96 for Tumkur district. For Kunigal block, the optimal number of clusters was 37 and 32 for supply and demand scenarios 1(BAU -Business As Usual) and 2 (with 10% increase in cropland and 20% increase in demand). • The optimal capacity planning emphasized the importance of clustering of villages for minimizing the total installed capacity. The result also showed that the breakeven distance was the determining factor about the choice of GC vs SA systems. The main contributions of this thesis are: i. Hourly demand pattern was studied to estimate the aggregate demand for electricity at village level for different sectors across various seasons. ii. Village-wise biomass resources potential for power generation was assessed iii. Optimal locations for siting biomass energy systems were identified using k-medoid clustering algorithm iv. An optimal scheduling of end-use activities was planned using heuristics method to minimize the installed capacity v. Optimal location, scheduling plan of end-use activities and optimal capacity were determined for individual villages as well as village clusters vi. The economic implications of grid extension vis-à-vis stand-alone mode of operation of the installed biomass energy systems were studied The generalized, multipronged approach presented in this thesis to effectively integrate both demand-side management and supply-side management in rural energy planning can be implemented for any rural region irrespective of the location. The results emphasized that for efficient demand-side and supply-side management, it is important to plan for clusters of villages than at the individual village level. The results reported in this thesis will help the policy and strategy makers, and governments to achieve rural electrification to a satisfactory extent to ensure continuous, uninterrupted and reliable power supply by determining the clustering strategy, optimal cluster size, optimal scale and siting of decentralized biomass power generation systems.

By 2020, Thailand ensured 100% electricity access to its 72 million inhabitants. This was partly done by promoting off-grid energy systems in rural areas instead of using costly grid extensions. Although electricity is ensured for all, future challenges and objectives include- increasing the share of renewable energy and decreasing energy dependence while simultaneously meeting the increasing demand. Off-grid energy solutions for rural areas have been studied in many previous projects. The most optimal energy system concerning cost, resilience, and emissions can be found by quantifying natural resources, estimating electricity consumption, and comparing technologies. This project aims to evaluate how an existing off-grid system can be complemented in the future. This was done by using the optimization program HOMER. The village Ban Wangwon, located in Prachuap Khiri Khan, was for a long time without electricity access due to a law obstructing them from connecting to the grid. This changed when in 2018, households were mounted with PV and BESS. Energy demand in the village was determined in three scenarios based on the World Banks tier system for rural energy and the previous population growth. In addition, the availability of meteorological and natural resources, energy load profile, and price of technology were determined based on the literature review and a field study. According to the results, the most optimal energy system for today's electricity use, Scenario 1, regarding both cost and emissions, was a PV/BESS system. In scenarios 2 and 3, a PV/BESS/Bio configuration proved the most cost-effective, although not optimal regarding emission rates for future energy demand. However, this system sees much lower emissions compared to when diesel generators were included, which makes this suitable for reaching Ban Wangwons requirements. Using a bio generator optimally requires a centralized energy system, requiring settlements with landowners. The biomass fuel considered in this work was pineapple crowns due to the abundance of pineapple factories and farms in the area. After a sensitivity analysis, the most impactful variables proved to be fuel prices, bio generator efficiency, and discount rate. Only one type of solar panel and battery was considered, and the load was assumed to be constant, which hindered the credibility of the results. Future projects could investigate more thoroughly how pineapple waste can be utilized in energy production, how price changes in renewable energy affect the outcome, and how a microgrid would be constructed. The results were considered beneficial in achieving SDGs 1 No poverty, 7 Affordable and clean energy, 11 Sustainable cities and communities, and 13 Climate action. / År 2020 säkerställde Thailand tillgång till el för 100% av sina 72 miljoner invånare. Detta gjordes delvis genom att främja fristående energisystem på landsbygden istället för att använda dyra elnätsförlängningar. Även om el finns tillgängligt för alla, inkluderar framtida utmaningar och mål att öka andelen förnybar energi samt minska energiberoendet samtidigt som efterfrågan på energi ökar. Fristående energilösningar för landsbygden har studerats i många tidigare projekt. Det mest optimala energisystemet gällande kostnader, resilliens och utsläpp kan bestämmas genom att kvantifiera naturliga resurser, uppskatta elförbrukning och jämföra teknologier. I detta projekt utvärderas hur ett redan befintligt fristående system kan kompletteras i framtiden. Detta gjordes med hjälp av optimeringsprogrammet HOMER. Byn Ban Wangwon, belägen i Prachuap Khiri Khan, var länge utan elektricitet på grund av en lag som hindrade dem från att ansluta till nätet. Detta ändrades när hushåll utrustades med PV och BESS år 2018. Energibehovet i byn bestämdes i tre scenarier baserat på the World Banks tier-system för energi på landsbygden samt den tidigare befolkningsökningen. Meteorologiska och naturliga resurser, energianvändningsprofil och teknikpris bestämdes baserat på en litteratur- och fältstudie. Enligt resultaten var det mest optimala energisystemet för dagens elanvädning, Scenario 1, ett PV/BESS system, avseende både kostnader och utsläpp. För de två övriga framtidsscenariorna, Scenario 2 och 3, visade sig en PV/BESS/Bio-konfiguration vara mest kostnadseffektiv, trots att den medför utsläpp. Detta system har dock mycket lägre utsläpp jämfört med dieselelgeneratorer, vilket gör det bra för att nå Ban Wangwons krav. Tillämpning av en biogenerator skulle kräva ett centraliserat energisystem, vilket skulle kräva överenskommelser med markägare. Biomassan som användes i detta arbete var ananasrester på grund av den stora mängden ananasfabriker och plantager i området. Efter en känslighetsanalys visade sig de mest påverkande variablerna vara bränslepris, bio-generatorns effektivitet och diskonteringsräntan. Endast en typ av solpanel och batteri togs i åtanke och elbehovet antogs vara konstant, vilket hindrar trovärdigheten i resultaten. Hur ananasavfall kan användas i energiproduktionen, hur prisförändringar inom förnybarenergi påverkar resultatet och hur ett microgrid skulle kunna konstrueras är alla relevanta frågor för framtida projekt. Resultaten ansågs vara fördelaktiga för att uppnå FN:s hållbarhetsmål 1 Ingen fattigdom, 7 Hållbar energi för alla, 11 Hållbara städer och samhällen och 13 Bekämpa klimatförändringarna.

The rapid and sustained development of the rural regions of South Africa continues to pose an extraordinary challenge to the development community of the country. Policy makers continue to be overwhelmed by the lack of development in the rural areas in spite of the various efforts made to develop them. A review of the publications and development plans of the study region indicates that the planners have for long been pre-occupied with taking limited perspectives of the development planning problems. Development plans have been conceived and implemented in terms of individual sectors instead of looking at their relations with other sectors and regions. This study seeks to make a contribution to the solution of the development problems of the rural areas of the former homeland regions by demonstrating how an integrated approach to the research process and to development planning could make a difference to the lives of the rural communities. This theme is illustrated with reference to the rural energy sector and its relations with the broader regional development problems, challenges and plans of the Sekhukhune district municipality of the Limpopo Province. / GEOGRAPHY / MA (GEOGRAPHY)

The rapid and sustained development of the rural regions of South Africa continues to pose an extraordinary challenge to the development community of the country. Policy makers continue to be overwhelmed by the lack of development in the rural areas in spite of the various efforts made to develop them. A review of the publications and development plans of the study region indicates that the planners have for long been pre-occupied with taking limited perspectives of the development planning problems. Development plans have been conceived and implemented in terms of individual sectors instead of looking at their relations with other sectors and regions. This study seeks to make a contribution to the solution of the development problems of the rural areas of the former homeland regions by demonstrating how an integrated approach to the research process and to development planning could make a difference to the lives of the rural communities. This theme is illustrated with reference to the rural energy sector and its relations with the broader regional development problems, challenges and plans of the Sekhukhune district municipality of the Limpopo Province. / GEOGRAPHY / MA (GEOGRAPHY)