The Proceeding of International Conference of Sustainable Technology

Development, Denpasar

2010

Implementation of Renewable Energy Technology in Rural Areas of

Developing Countries
Sunday Noya
Department of Industrial Engineering, Ma Chung University, Malang, Indonesia

Email: sunday.alexander@machung.ac.id

ABSTRACT: Today, energy needs are increasing rapidly due to the sharp growth of the world population.
Almost 3 billion people, particularly in rural areas live without an electricity supply or energy access because
their country lacks fossil fuel resources. Since 1970 the concept of renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind and biomass have been seriously considered as an alternative to conventional energy sources. Although
now, it still only supplies 2% of global energy demands, mostly in developed countries. According to World
Energy Council Report, the majority of the world population lives in rural areas, approximately 90% of them
in developing countries. This means that at least half the worlds energy consumption should occur in the
rural areas of developing countries. However, technology, cost and environmental are issues that hinder the
implementation of renewable energy in rural area of developing country. In fact, there are many reasons why
renewable energy technology is applicable to rural area. This paper examines the implementation of
renewable energy technology in rural areas of developing countries by exposing world energy problems
today, defining the renewable energy concept, describing the need for renewable energies in rural areas
especially in developing countries, then explains the implementation of renewable energy technology in rural
areas, the constraints and how to solve them. It is obvious that using renewable energy is the best way to fulfil
the need for energy in rural areas in developing countries.
Keywords: renewable energy, rural area, developing countries
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, energy needs are increasing rapidly due to
the sharp growth of the world population. The
largest energy sources are from oil and gas and some
researchers have calculated that the availability of
these kinds of unrenewable energy sources will be
used up in less than 50 years from now and the
production of oil will reach a peak in 2020. It can be
predicted that in the next 20 years there will be a gap
between energy production and consumption.
Therefore we cannot only depend on oil, gas and
coal (conventional energy) to supply our energy
needs. To overcome this problem since 1970 the
concept of renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind and biomass have been seriously considered as
an alternative to conventional energy sources.
Almost 3 billion people, particularly in rural
areas live without an electricity supply or energy
access because their country lacks fossil fuel
resources. However, even though they lack these
fossil fuels, developing countries posses many
sources of renewable energy. In addition, renewable
energy is most suitable to be implemented in remote

rural areas. Furthermore, it will reduce the use of

fossil expensive imported fuel energy (Sawin, 2004).
This paper examines the implementation of
renewable energy technology in rural areas of
developing countries by exposing world energy
problems today; defining the renewable energy
concept; describing the need for renewable energies
in rural areas especially in developing countries then
explains the implementation of renewable energy
technology in rural areas, the constraints and how to
solve them. It is my assumption that using renewable
energy is the best way to fulfil the need for energy in
rural areas in developing countries.
2. DISCUSSION
2.1 Renewable Energy
In the past, at least two kinds of renewable energy
have been widely used worldwide. First, hydro
energy which is used to generate electric power by
driving turbines. This kind of energy has been used
traditionally for instance, to generate small electric
power for a house and to drive a rice mill. But, it has

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Development, Denpasar
been also used to generate vast amounts of electric
power for massive consumption. Second, biomass
energy which is used directly in solid form such as
firewood and charcoal. As recently as 1970s the
Renewable Energy concept was introduced as a part
of an effort to replace conventional and nuclear
energy. Renewable Energy is widely accepted as
energy resources that can be quickly replaced by
natural continuing process. Texas Renewable
Energy Industries Association defines renewable
energy as:
Any energy resource that is naturally
regenerated over a short time scale and
derived directly from the sun (such as
thermal, photochemical, and photoelectric),
indirectly from the sun (such as wind,
hydropower, and photosynthetic energy
stored in biomass), or from other natural
movements and mechanisms of the
environment (such as geothermal and tidal
energy). Renewable energy does not include
energy resources derived from fossil fuels,
waste products from fossil sources, or waste
products from inorganic sources."
From the definition above, renewable energy
sources can be divided into several sources. First is
solar energy, energy that is directly collected from
sunlight and other radiation from the sun. This
energy is converted into electric energy using
photovoltaic system or used as thermal energy to
heat a liquid which then is used to generate electric
power or to directly heat other material. Second is
wind energy which as kinetic energy is used to drive
turbines and produce electricity, or converted into
mechanical energy to move other equipment like a
rice mill.
The next is hydropower which is similar to wind
power, its kinetic and potential energy are used to
create electric power or converted to drive other
machines. Then biomass, it is produced from natural
products especially from plants. Biomass can be
found in the form of liquid and gas which are usually
burned to release their stored chemical energy.
Another form is solid such as firewood and charcoal.
Another type of renewable energy is geothermal
energy. This kind of energy is stored as a thermal in
the core of the earth and can be used to generate
electricity or used directly to heat buildings. The last
is tidal energy. Tidal systems caused by the
attraction of the moon create potential and kinetic

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energy which is used to drive turbines and produce

electric power.
For the last ten years, renewable energy
technology has been growing rapidly. Although
now, it still only supplies 2% of global energy
demands, mostly in developed countries, the
technical potential is still large. For example: global
renewable energy resources such as hydropower,
biomass, solar, wind and geothermal which currently
have been used are only about 10; 50; 0.2; 0.2 and 2
Exajoules per year respectively while their potential
are still about 50; 250; 1,600; 600 and 5,000
Exajoules per year respectively. Total global used is
only about 62.4 Exajoules per year while the
potential is about 7,500 Exajoules per year.
2.2 The Needs for Renewable Energy in Rural
Areas
According to World Energy Council Report, the
majority of the world population lives in rural areas,
approximately 90% of them in developing countries.
This means that at least half the worlds energy
consumption should occurr in the rural areas of
developing countries. However, two billion people
live in developing countries without access to
electricity and (Clay, 2002) and sufficient energy
services (World Energy Council Report). Some
people argue that energy is not a basic need for
human life. However, it is required to alleviate
poverty. For example, energy is needed for cooking,
heating and lighting or for running a home industry
to raise a familys income and create jobs. To
provide sufficient energy, they depend on traditional
and even primitive technology. Firewood is the most
common type of energy source that is used in this
type of community. Then, to suffice their
consumption in national level their governments
import expensive fossil fuel from other countries.
However, these countries technically have the
potential to develop renewable energy.
2.3 Renewable Energy Technology
Some opinions say that people in developing
countries especially in rural areas are not ready to
implement renewable energy technology because it
is so sophisticated. In addition, Clay (2002) said that
the problem is how to implement this new
technology and convince people how to benefit from
it. There are so many elements such as regulators
and technicians who dont know how to start
develop and sustain this technology. However, she
refers to Baring-Gould who maintained that these

The Proceeding of International Conference of Sustainable Technology

Development, Denpasar
problems are natural and just needed an educational
process to solve them. For example, governments of
developing countries can conduct training or
educational programs about renewable energy in
rural areas; they can also introduce this technology
to their citizens in the school curriculum. Women
can also be empowered. In rural areas, men are often
away from home for working, so it is essential to
consider training women.
Also, Renewable Energy Technology companies
who are concerned about energy scarcity in rural
areas can do the training this can also be an
advertisement for their product. According to World
Energy Council Report, some companies have
already been pioneers of that. What is more, in many
areas simple renewable energy technologies can be
implemented to introduce it to people in rural areas,
for instance, solar cookers, simple solar heaters,
small scale wind turbine, etc.
Other opinions say that usually the range of a
rural area is too large and the population spread over
a vast area. Therefore, it does not matter which
energy technology is implemented; it is difficult to
distribute the energy especially as an electricity
power. This assertion might be true for conventional
energy because electricity power plant is generally
built in urban areas. In rural areas where the
population is unevenly distributed, supplying the
energy conventionally is more difficult. It is
expensive to connect those rural areas to national or
state electricity grids. Conversely, by using
renewable energy technology this problem can be
solved. Renewable energy technology makes it
possible to decentralize the electricity power. Smallscale electricity can be generated from sun wind or
tidal energy which is usually available in rural areas
while biomass energy is naturally produced and
understood by local people (World Energy Council).
Furthermore, Sawin (2004) explains that to produce
power locally from renewable energy for example
from sun and wind will cut transmission and
distribution losses to more than 40 percent in parts
of developing countries. Another benefit of using
renewable energy in rural areas that there is enough
space provided for collecting solar power,
constructing wind farms or planting biomass.
Another opinion against is that renewable
energy especially solar and wind are intermittent
resources. We cannot start and stop the power when
we need, for example wind can be fickle, therefore
disturbs the turbine process. For example, on
January 7th 1997 demand in the UK peaked at
53,000 MW. An area of high pressure covered the

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British Isles and there was no wind. Had we been

relying on wind to supply 5,300 MW at that point,
there would have been widespread power cuts and
10% of the residents would have been without
electricity on a cold winter evening (Country
Guardian, 2000). What is worse, this kind of energy
is unstorable. In addition, some critics say that
renewable energy is difficult to be dense, therefore
huge amounts energy cannot be provided in small
volume which is important for transportation of
energy (Scheer, 1997). However, the technology of
renewable energy is advancing. The intermittency
can be solved by implementing hybrid system, for
instance: mix of wind and hydropower or solar and
biomass. Today, The US Department of Energy is
modificating a turbine which still can run by less
wind (Sawin, 2004). For people who argue that
renewable energy cannot be stored and dense,
Scheer (1997) asserted that they only see solar and
wind but they fail to look the potential of biomass.
Biomass is as storable as oil, gas and coal and its
density equivalent with those of conventional fuel.
2.4 The Cost of Renewable Energy Technology
Another issue that people is still debating concerning
renewable energy is its cost. Many argue that
renewable energy costs more than other traditional
energy. Cost is a great factor, according to Clay
(2002) to many residents and even whole
communities in rural areas who cannot afford the
initial cost of many forms of renewable energy since
the cost is about $400 to $800 per system depending
on types and preferred wattage, if we compare to the
average salary per year in the developing countries
in the world which is only about $100 - $375 per
year. Moreover, the programs to shift conventional
energy with renewable energy surely depends on
two basic factors which are the economic growth of
the country and personal income. However, this cost
problem can be addressed by the government by
developing a micro-credit system in which local
banks provide soft loans to the consumers of
renewable energy power system (Clay, 2002).
Government in developing countries has to change
their focus; they must see this as development
issues, not energy issues. Using a new perspective,
they can create a new policy based on renewable
energy issue. For example, the governments can
raise the electricity tariffs in urban area; they can
change the energy subsidy from rich people in urban
area to benefit the poor in rural areas. Alternative
solution, renewable system producer companies can
give credit and the average payment per month can

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Development, Denpasar
be less than the cost of using conventional energy
system. With this method, the poor in rural areas are
treated as clients with assets not as beneficiaries of
government incentives. Furthermore, Milburn (n.a)
contended that today the significant improvement of
renewable technology has made it competitive with
other energy sources. Therefore, the cost of
renewable energy will become cheaper in the future.
In addition, by mass production of equipment used
in renewable energy system the cost will be reduced.
Another assumption that we are not ready to
implement renewable energy technology is based on
the fact that high upfront cost is needed when we
want to build a large scale renewable energy power
plant (HABITAT, n.a.) Since the initial capital
investment of renewable energy plant is much higher
compared to conventional energy this project is
much harder to finance. While multilateral lenders
prefer to invest in large-scale energy projects in
urban areas not in small-scale rural areas energy
projects (World Energy Council, n.a). Nevertheless,
this problem can be addressed by several different
methods. First, Clay (2002) gives an example about
the Thai government who financed the projects of
constructing renewable energy power plants in the
most rural areas with taxes they collected from the
sale of fossil fuels within the country. Secondly,
productive partnerships can be built with
international organizations that support rural
development by financing renewable energy
projects, for example The World bank who support
the initial capital financial for energy activities in
rural areas in the developing world (World Energy
Council, n.a).
2.5 Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy
Technology
According to Brower (1992), there are
environmental issues caused by renewable energy
implementation that have to be considered. Firstly,
the environmental impact associated with wind
energy. There is much public opinion showing
concern over visual and noise pollution created by
wind farms. What is more, wind farms threaten the
ecosystem by reducing bird population. However,
compared to vehicles, buildings and cell phone
towers, wind farms contribute less significant
hazards which are responsible to bird mortality.
Techniques such as the use of painted blades, slower
rotational speeds and careful sitting of projects have
been done to shrink this problem (Sawin, 2004).
Second is the concern on solar energy about
hazardous materials such as arsenic, cadmium and

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silicon which are required in photovoltaic cell

manufacture. These materials can be dangerous for
workers and people who come into contact with
them (Brower, 1992). The next controversial on
renewable energy is about dams which are built to
use the maximal potential of hydropower. McCully
(2003) in his article showed much damage caused by
dam, for instance: the destruction of beautiful
landscapes, the increase of water salinity, the
disruption of ecosystem, the spreading of waterborne diseases and the death of many people and
destruction of environment if they collapse.
However, the impact of implementing renewable
energy is less harmful compare to the impact of
conventional energy. Sawin (2004) asserted that
conventional energy not only cannot cover the
energy demands but also is responsible for the
steady increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
and also raises the risk of climate change. It has been
proven that the use of coal and oil release large
amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants. Gas
causes the same problem although at a slightly lower
level. This air pollutant from burning conventional
fuel caused about 10% at premature deaths each year
(Sawin, 2004). Therefore, in her further opinion
Sawin said that many countries consider renewable
energy as not only the credible alternative to
conventional energy, but also a necessity to meet
growing energy consumption while also supporting
human health, quality of life and natural
environment.
3. CONCLUSION
There are many reason why renewable energy
technology is applicable to rural areas; it will reduce
the cost of electrification of rural areas; give support
to solving economic problem in rural communities;
contribute to the reduction of fossil fuel dependence;
and it is environmentally friendly, it is important to
force the implementation of the technology in rural
areas of developing countries. HABITAT asserted
that it is essential not to underestimate the
importance of renewable energy technology at the
local level; therefore this technology should be
promoted. It is important to improve this technology
which can be attained through the process of its
implementation (Scheer, 1997); reduce its cost;
promote the education of this technology to give
basic knowledge to the population in rural areas; and
also install and maintain this system. Hopefully, in
the future this technology will solve energy scarcity
problem in rural areas especially in the developing

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Development, Denpasar
world as well as provide clean and healthy energy
for the world. The technology, financial and
environmental aspects discussed in this paper should
be used to support the idea of renewable energy
technology implementation in the rural areas of
developing countries.
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