Renewable Energy as a Development Enabler

Renewable Energy for Productive Uses

Renewable Energy and the Millennium Development Goals

Renewable Energy for Productive Uses

Renewable energy can provide important opportunities for economic development.  These opportunities can result from the creation of construction and operating jobs for renewable energy power plants, which tend to require more jobs per unit of energy installed.  They can also result from the creation of new manufacturing facilities for renewable energy technologies and components.  These benefits can accrue to both industrialized and developing countries.  Several studies have investigated the potential jobs and economic benefits of renewable energy in the US, and one study¹ of a major program to promote renewable energy predicted over 19 million construction jobs over a 10 year period and en economic benefit of over $2.9 trillion.  It further estimated an ongoing economic benefit of $140 billion and almost 1.4 million permanent jobs.

For developing countries, renewable energy provides significant economic development benefits in rural areas, where small amounts of energy—in the form of electricity, heat, and motive power—can have very positive impacts on income, education, health, and food security.  Traditional energy—particularly in the form of biomass, animal manures, and human motive power – has provided the bulk of rural energy needs, although use of modern sources such as LPG, grid electricity and diesel power are growing.  However, there are many opportunities for renewable energy technologies to provide income generation, social services like education and health care, food security, and other important development benefits. In fact, for many applications, renewable energy technologies can be the least-cost source of reliable modern energy.  

The application of modern energy services in rural areas derived mainly from renewable resources to create goods and/or services either directly or indirectly for the production of income or value has been defined as a “productive use.”   There is an increased focus on productive uses as a result of the shift toward the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals.  Traditionally, the productive uses of energy have been rather narrowly defined with a focus on the direct impact of energy use on gross domestic product (GDP) and the importance of motive power for agriculture.   However, the new focus on productive uses results from the growing body of evidence that application of modern energy services can have a tremendous impact on education, health, and gender equality. Indeed, a refined understanding of energy use has important public policy implications because scarce resources may be guided into investments that may achieve the desired national or international development goals.

Several case studies and examples of productive-use applications of renewable energy for income generation and social services were documented in as workshop sponsored by the Global Environment Facility and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations² .  This reference also presented renewable energy for productive use project development guidance and strategy, as well as key lessons learned.

Examples of applications that result in income generation included:

• water pumping for irrigation
• cottage industry like sewing, weaving, handicrafts
• agro-industry processing
• crop and meat drying and freezing
• kiln firing for pottery
• welding and wood-working

Examples of applications that result provide valuable social services included:

• home, school, and community-center lighting
• water pumping for drinking
• medical equipment in health clinics
• community street lighting
• telecommunications and computing centers

Productive uses can assist women in earning income, such as lighting to extend the opportunities for weaving or other cottage industry in the evenings. So are applications that address the needs of women for time- and labor-saving, cooking, and education.

Renewable Energy and the Millennium Development Goals³

On September 8, 2000, world leaders unanimously adopted the “United Nations Millennium Declaration,” which calls for global policies and measures, corresponding to the needs of developing countries and economies in transition. As part of the Declaration, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commit the international community to vigorously promote human development through global partnerships for expanding and accelerating social and economic progress in all countries. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress.   The goals are listed below, and more information on the goals, targets and indicators can be found at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Although the MDGs do not specifically mention “energy,” throughout every economic and social sector, energy plays an essential role in their achievement.  The next section discusses the relationship or link between energy access and achieving the MDGs.

The lack of access to modern energy services is inextricably linked to poverty and the lack of fulfillment of other needs such as shelter, food, health care, education, secure land tenure, access to agricultural inputs, credit, information, and political power. 

Poverty and Hunger: Improving access to reliable and affordable energy raises the income of rural people because it increases productivity by enabling mechanization and providing lighting after sunset.  It encourages new businesses to form, which creates new and often better paying jobs, and it facilitates better communication which improves the viability of the businesses.  Also, it reduces the disproportionately high portion of their time and income that rural poor spend on energy.

Improved energy access can also help to reduce hunger and malnutrition in direct ways by preventing food spoilage during harvesting and transportation to markets.  It can also contribute indirectly by providing cleaner cooking fuels and improved general economic and environmental conditions.

Education: Having a reliable electricity supply in schools directly influences the quality of education at all levels.  In addition, the ability to keep schools open at night can greatly encourage adult education programs.  Both of these factors are also bound to have a positive impact on achieving universal primary education.  Away from school, children spend a lot of time collecting fuel wood or agricultural residues for energy purposes. Access to modern fuels can eliminate this need and free up time for studying.  See Renewable Energy for Rural Schools (PDF).

Women’s empowerment: Improving rural energy access disproportionately benefits women, because in many parts of the world it is the women who spend time cooking (including preparing a fire) and collecting water and fuel wood or dung.   Improving rural energy access frees up their time for education, income generation and social activities.  Therefore, it contributes to improved literacy among women, greater income generation by women, and more community activities led by women.  See Renewable Energy for Microenterprise (PDF).

Health issues: Traditional cooking and heating fuels generate a tremendous amount of indoor air pollution, which is believed to be a significant cause of illness and death in rural areas.   Improving access to clean, modern fuels, whether conventional (LPG) or renewable (biogas), reduces the levels of indoor air pollution and can lead to improved health, especially for women and children.   Increasing energy supplies to rural clinics, generally heat, lighting and refrigeration, improves the quality of health services delivery, for example vaccines need to be refrigerated and lighting allows for medical emergencies after sunset.  See Renewable Energy for Rural Health Clinics (PDF).

Energy also improves literacy (as discussed above), and this in turn has a significant impact on health issues.  Public communication remains an integral part of the fight against diseases, especially AIDS.  Increased energy access can make available various communication tools (e.g. radio, TV, Internet) which can be utilized effectively against AIDS and other diseases. All of this reduces child mortality, maternal mortality and the incidence of diseases.

Environmental sustainability: The energy sector has a mixed record regarding the environment, with conventional power plants and traditional fuel use leading to significant air and water pollution.  Renewable energy produces no (or very little) pollution, and it can also prevent or reduce land degradation and habitat destruction due to mining and traditional fuel gathering.  Renewable energy also emits no net CO2, and so helps to reduce the impacts of global climate change.  Regarding water, improved energy access, especially from renewable energy, can improve the quantity of water available by allowing the use of mechanized pumps which can access hitherto untapped water supplies.  In addition, improved energy availability can enhance the quality of the water supply by treating (boiling, filtering, etc) the available water resources to make them safe for drinking.

¹ New Energy for America, The Apollo Jobs Report: Good Jobs & Energy Independence, January 2004. (PDF)
²  GEF-FAO Workshop on Productive Uses of Renewable Energy: Experience, Strategies, and Project Development Summary, FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy. (PDF)
³ Energy for Development: The Potential Role of Renewable Energy in Meeting the Millennium Development Goals, prepared for the REN21 Network by the Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC, 2005. (PDF)