Elmahgary / Biswas Integrated Rural Energy Planning

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4831-6150-1
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 216 Seiten

Integrated Rural Energy Planning presents a series of case studies and guidelines for developing integrated rural energy centers, particularly in the Third World. This text highlights technical cooperation and information flow between developing countries. This book consists of 11 chapters and begins with a brief overview of the impact of rural development and rural energy sources on the environment, along with the needs of and strategies for integrated rural development. The chapters that follow describe integrated rural energy systems in selected countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Nigeria, and Colombia. The experimental rural energy center established in Niaga Wolof, Senegal and the integrated field project in Basaisa village, Egypt are also discussed. The final chapter offers guidelines for planning, development, and operation of integrated rural energy projects. This monograph will appeal to energy specialists, policymakers, and others who are interested in constructing, operating, and maintaining integrated rural energy centers in developing countries.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Elmahgary, Yehia

Biswas, Asit K.

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION
Yehia ElMahgary and Asit K. Biswas,     Dr Yehia ElMahgary is Senior Programme Officer in charge of Energy, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya. Dr Asit K. Biswas is President of the International Society for Ecological Modelling, 76 Woodstock Close, Oxford OX2 8DD, UK Rural energy is and continues to be primarily solar energy, available through photosynthetic conversion of crops (food and fodder), fuelwood, animal dung and agricultural residues. Over 80% of rural energy in the developing countries is derived from wood and animal wastes, and is primarily used for cooking and agriculture. Most of the energy used is non-commercial and produced by people themselves to meet their own needs. Rural energy, in other words, is not a commodity exchanged through a market, but a use value. Recognition of this characteristic is central to the task of rural energy planning and assessment. Rural energy sources and the environment
Rural energy use takes place in the context of complex, interrelated physical, economic and social systems. Energy flows exhibit many interconnections. Most traditional fuel resources serve many purposes. Leaves and twigs may serve as animal fodder or fuelwood; the trees themselves may be harvested for fuelwood or building materials; residues from the trees may be spread or used as fertilizer. Crop and animal residues also have competing uses: new straw for animal feed, compost, fuel or soil nutritioner; and dung for fertilizer, fuel or feedstock. There is often a delicate resource balance within a rural area. Any resource adjustments – for example, forest clearing for agriculture, excessive wood cutting for fuel, etc – imply altered resource availabilities. Fuelwood comes overwhelmingly from local sources, and this puts growing pressure on the trees, bushes and shrubs near the centres of population. Long before the demand for fuelwood leads to complete destruction of the tree cover, it can have a markedly degrading environmental effect. Excessive pruning of its branches may reduce a tree’s capacity for growth; removal of the more easily felled younger trees may reduce the regenerative ability of the forest; excessive opening of the canopy through the removal of too many trees can render the forest susceptible to damage from wind and sun and can affect wildlife; the removal of all residues, even to the point of sweeping up the leaves, removes the nutrients that should return to the soil to maintain its fertility; removal of stumps, bushes and shrubs can destroy much of what remains of the soil’s protective cover and binding structure. Eventually, the whole forest may disappear. The removal of tropical forests has been estimated to occur at a rate of about 11 million ha/year. Most of this deforestation occurs (and will continue to occur) in the developing countries, whose humid tropical forests and open woodlands are steadily being felled and converted to farmland and pasture. This trend is impelled by several forces: the expansion of agricultural frontiers into forested areas in order to supply food as populations increase; the demand for fuelwood and charcoal; the demand for tropical forest products by industrialized nations; and the demand within the developing countries for paper and other forest-derived products as incomes rise. In the developing regions where fuelwood is most needed (and demand will increase by 2000), situations have evolved where fuelwood has become quite scarce. Acute scarcity in 1980 involved about 90 million rural people in developing countries [3]. Minimum energy needs are not met, and energy consumption is below minimum levels. Such situations prevail in Africa, mainly in the arid and semi-arid areas south of the Sahara, in East and South-east Africa and in the mountainous areas; in Asia, in the Himalayas and the hills of South Asia; and in Latin America, mostly in the Andean Plateau and the arid areas of the Pacific Coast. Also, some 150 million people live in major urban centres situated in rural areas which already have a fuelwood deficit. Under prevailing ecological conditions and with expanding demographic growth, any large-scale forestry effort to improve the fuelwood supply is likely to be very costly and to offer only a partial solution to increasing energy needs. Deficits in 1980 involved 833 million rural people, in areas where populations are still able to meet their minimum energy needs, but only by harvesting in excess of sustainable fuelwood supply. Populations in such situations in Africa amount to 146 million, mainly in the savanna areas in West, Central and South-east Africa. In North Africa and the Middle East, 70 million rural people have a fuelwood deficit. In Asia, 550 million people in rural areas and small urban centres, mainly in the Indu Ganges plains of Central Asia and in South-east Asia, are affected. In Latin America, 82 million rural people are affected, mostly in the semi-arid and arid areas. An additional rural population of 800 million are living under conditions of prospective fuelwood deficit. (Prospective deficit situations are those where the availability of supplies exceeded demand in 1980, but where, if current trends of depletion of fuelwood resources continue, deficits will occur by 2000.) The demand for fuelwood and charcoal, the higher prices of kerosene, the increasing demand for energy for rural industries and agricultural production, higher population and competing demands for forest products, have all generated a rural energy ‘crisis’. This crisis can be understood only as an interaction of natural, technological and social factors. Energy cannot be addressed as an isolated physical or technical problem but only in the overall broad context of development with its socio-cultural, economic, environmental and geopolitical dimensions. Rural development and the environment
Environmentally sound development is seen as a process which is primarily directed towards: (a) satisfying basic human needs, starting with the needs of the neediest, in order to reduce inequalities between and within countries; (b) indigenous self-reliance through social participation and control; and (c) harmony with the environment [2]. The commitment to development, rather than to growth per se, as a socioeconomic objective has major implications with regard to energy targets for developing countries. The view that growth in GNP should be a byproduct rather than the basis of development releases policy makers from dependence on the ‘correlation’ (between per capita energy consumption and per capita GNP) as a source of energy targets. Instead, per capita energy targets must be derived from development objectives, and in particular from the objective of satisfying basic human needs. In terms of economic development, increasing energy supply means an increased capacity to produce the necessities and amenities of life — food, shelter, clothing, communications, health care, transport etc. In fact, economic development consists in large part of harnessing increasing amounts of energy for productive purposes. This can occur either by tapping increased amounts of energy resources or by making more efficient use of available energy resources through use of appropriate tools and machines or conservation techniques. The relationship between energy and economic development is a dynamic one, in which the amount, type, and speed of economic growth are mutually dependent variables of the quantity, kind, and price of energy available. Rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic, environmental and social life of a specific group of people — the rural poor. A strategy for rural development must recognize three points. First, the rate of transfer of people out of low productivity, agriculture and related activities into more rewarding pursuits has been slow. Second, the mass of the rural population in developing countries face varying degrees of poverty; their position is likely to get worse if population expands at unprecedented rates while limitations continue to be imposed by available resources, technology, and institutions and organizations. Third, rural areas have labour, land and at least some capital which, if mobilized, could reduce poverty and improve the quality of life. Since rural development is intended to reduce poverty, it must be clearly designed to increase production and raise productivity. Rural development recognizes, however, that improved food supplies and nutrition, together with basic services such as health and education, can not only directly improve the physical well being and quality of life of the rural poor, but can also indirectly enhance their productivity and their ability to contribute to the national economy. There is a growing consensus that successful development requires a firm agricultural foundation and that the basic quality of life must be improved for — and with the participation of – the poor majority of people living in the countryside. If this can be done, the rural poor may have reason and ability to reduce their birthrates, they may increase their food production and consumption, and they may no longer be forced to flee to already overcrowded cities. Carefully and persistently pursued, a fully integrated rural development programme could provide a sound basis for the manufacturing and service sectors of a self-reliant and thriving national...