Why renewable energy sources for rural electrification?
A substantial proportion of the worlds poor live in rural areas which are geographically isolated and are often too sparsely populated or have a too low potential electricity demand to justify the extension of the grid. Therefore, it is necessary to provide access to electricity through other means than the extension of the grid. Renewable energies are the most adaptable, flexible and easy to use technologies for isolated rural areas. Off grid and mini grid applications offer affordable decentralised renewable energy technologies such as Solar Home Systems, wind systems, biogas digesters, biogas gasifiers, micro-hydro power plants, etc.
As energy consumption rises with increases in population and living standards, the environmental costs of energy also raise mainly affecting developing countries. Therefore, energy has to be expanded in new ways. Renewable energy sources are among the least cost and most feasible solutions, since they are coming from unlimited and accessible sources, they are sustainable (minimum maintenance needs) and will cause no impact towards fragile ecosystems. Further, renewable energies can help decrease CO2 emissions, contributing to climate change mitigation
Often, access to electricity is designed to provide the service to low income areas where the inhabitants have not enough means to maintain it. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a sustainable access to electricity where the users are also given the means to afford the electricity they consume. It is critical to stress and assess the productive uses of energy in order to foster development. Direct and indirect economic benefits flow from the use of electricity in productive applications within rural areas such us irrigation, food preservation, crop processing, cooling and development of small business which would result in an increase of employment opportunities for the rural population.
Last, but not least, it is to be remembered that a combination of improved technology and economies of scale has pushed down the costs of renewable energies. The continuing maturation of the renewable energy industry in the developed world will keep on bringing down these costs.
Unlike most conventional energy sources, the cost of producing energy from renewable energy sources will decrease dramatically in the future, given the necessary conditions.
However, despite the favorable trends of renewable energy sources, they are still perceived as high cost options and therefore limit public and private investment in grid connected and off grid applications. The reasons can be found within the benefits enjoyed by the conventional energy systems such as favorable policy frameworks and public financing advantages, giving as a result low capital costs, thought leaving the evidence of significant operating costs.
Further, the high capital costs of installing renewable energy systems are often inappropriately compared to the capital costs of conventional energy technologies In many cases, particularly in remote locations, the low operation and maintenance costs as well as the inexistent fuel expenses and the increased reliability and the longer expected useful life of renewable energy technologies, offset initial capital costs, but this kind of life cycle accounting is not regularly used as a basis for comparison. In addition, the externalities associated with energy systems, specially the environmental costs associated with fossil fuels, are often not fully accounted.