REN21 - Renewable Energy and Policy Network for the 21st Century

The most common applications of renewable energy for rural (off-grid) energy services are cooking, lighting and other small electric needs, process motive power, water pumping, and heating and cooling. These applications are described in Table 8, which blends "first-generation" or "traditional" applications and technologies (i.e., unprocessed biofuels and small-scale hydro) with "second-generation" applications and technologies (i.e., wind, solar PV, biomass gasification, and pico-scale hydro). Although much development attention has focused on second-generation technologies, rural development professionals are continually reminding the development and renewable energy communities about the continued importance of first-generation technologies, especially in the least-developed countries. This section discusses some of the rural energy applications from Table 8 and then discusses rural electrification policy.[N36]

"Traditional" applications mean primarily burning fuel wood, agricultural and forestry wastes (residues), dung, and other unprocessed biomass fuels for home cooking and heating and other process-heating needs. Some biomass is converted to charcoal and sold in commercial markets. Biomass accounts for a large share of total primary energy supply in many developing countries. In 2001, this share was 49 percent in Africa, 25 percent in Asia, and 18 percent in Latin America. In 2000, households in sub-Saharan Africa consumed nearly 470 million tons of wood fuels (0.72 tons per capita) in the form of wood and charcoal. In comparison, India and China together consumed 340 million tons. In sub-Saharan Africa, wood or crop residues are the primary source of household energy for 94 percent of rural households and 41 percent of urban households. Charcoal is the primary source of household energy for 4 percent of rural households and 34 percent of urban households. And kerosene is the primary source of household energy for 2 percent of rural households and 13 percent of urban households.[ N37]

The costs and health impacts of traditional biomass use (and the corresponding benefits of improved biomass stoves and other technologies) are beyond the scope of this report but still highly significant.Much of the biomass fuel is collected outside of the commercial economy, with collection time being a large non-monetary expenditure, especially for women. Researchers Ezzati and Kammen, in a comprehensive literature review, state that "conservative estimates of global mortality as a result of exposure to indoor air pollution from solid fuels show that in 2000 between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths were attributed to this risk factor, accounting for 3–4 percent of total mortality worldwide."[N37]