Energy Access in Developing Countries
Access to energy services is fundamental to economic growth and social well being –the first Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is seen as intrinsically tied to the availability of energy services. Energy services include lighting, heating for cooking and warmth, transportation power, water pumping, grinding, and refrigeration. In areas without access to energy services, development is impeded - people often live in inadequate conditions without running water, must cope with health care and education facilities that do not have electricity, and have fewer opportunities for economic growth and employment. Therefore, there is a clear justification to expand the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries.
What are the Issues?
Access to energy is a critical element in social and economic development. The services that energy provides – including lighting, heating for cooking and warmth, power, fuel for transport, water pumping, and refrigeration – are intrinsically bound up with basic human development goals, including those in health, education, transport, telecommunications, safe water, sanitation services, and income-generating activities.
A reliable electricity supply is fundamental for meeting basic needs and stimulating economic growth. In rural areas, electricity is particularly important for sustaining the activities of health care facilities, businesses, and schools and thus contributing to human and economic development. Without access to electricity and modern fuels, people face limited opportunities for income generation as well as significant health barriers, creating a poverty trap.
Today, 1.6 billion people in developing countries do not have access to electricity and nearly 2.4 billion people use traditional biomass fuels for cooking. Nearly 40% of the world’s population – mainly in rural areas of Asia and Africa - uses traditional biomass, such as animal dung, wood or crop residues, as an energy source for cooking. Using biomass to cook has a number of harmful impacts on health, the environment and economic and social development. The fumes from indoor stoves that use biomass create respiratory problems; the WHO estimates that nearly 1.3 million people, mainly women and children, die each year as a result of indoor stoves and heaters. Furthermore, women and children bear much of the responsibility for gathering biomass resources, such as wood, which in turn reduces the time spent going to school or working. In some regions, the collection of wood for fuel has contributed to deforestation.
What are the Challenges?
With social and economic development so clearly bound up with access to electricity, investments in energy infrastructure to enable energy access are critical. Investment in centralized electricity production plants, such as coal plants or large dams, usually brings substantial benefits to middle- and high-income urban communities and businesses through standard power grids. In many countries, however, rural communities as well as lower-income urban areas often do not have access to the centralized power grid. Even in developed countries, there are people who do not have affordable access to energy from the grid.
In terms of cleaner burning household fuels, public policy action and cross-sector partnerships for investment offer opportunities to bring about significant large scale changes.
What are the Solutions?
Today we know that changes in energy supply – such as cleaner liquid and gaseous fuels (e.g., natural gas) – and energy technologies – such as stoves that produce less smoke – can help reduce respiratory illnesses, lower child mortality rates, and improve maternal health. Programs in agroforestry, which make firewood more available, can help to reduce the burdens on women and children who collect it, and thereby increase their ability to spend time at school or work.
There are many programs throughout developing regions that distribute LPG (liquid petroleum gas) stoves and canisters and energy efficient generators. With cleaner burning fuels and energy efficient stoves and generators, households can begin to overcome both the causes as well as the manifestations of poverty.
One way to address the issue of access to energy is to enable it through small-scale, "decentralized" energy technologies that do not depend on the grid. Decentralized technologies such as diesel or hybrid motors, which use either renewable or otherwise locally available fuel sources to create mechanical power and electricity, can help create economic opportunities and alleviate poverty.
In terms of providing LPG cylinders and stoves to all people who currently still use traditional biomass for cooking, systemic solutions are needed. Policy reforms that will encourage investment in energy infrastructure − including the handling, transport, and distribution of fuels as well as measures that will help reduce the cost burden of LPG cylinders and stoves for the poor − are needed to improve the affordability, and availability of safe cooking fuels.