provision of electricity to african households the importance of democracy and institutional quality how can differences in per capita household electricity consumption across african countries be understood based on theories that highlight the importance of democracy and institutional quality for provision of public goods the aim of the paper is to analyse the degree to which the level of per capita household electricity consumption in african countries can be attributed to the countries democratic status and their institutional quality we rely on regression analysis employing a pooled data set for 44 african countries over the time period 1996 2009 the analysis shows that democracy and institutional quality both have significant positive effects on per capita household consumption of electricity our results have implications for how energy sector reforms are promoted in developing countries at a more general level they illustrate that institution building policy efforts are relevant also in areas where contemporary debates have tended to primarily centre on economic development financial prerequisites and ownership issues

the impact of microfinance on energy access a case study from peripheral districts of lome togo this study seeks to understand the impact of microfinance on energy access in the peripheral districts of lome in togo we use descriptive statistics multiple regression propensity score matching

political determinants of electricity provision in small island developing states abstract this paper approaches provision of affordable and reliable electricity in small island developing states sids as a case of public good provision it aims to contribute to our understanding of how regime type and the quality of implementing institutions within political systems affect the prerequisites for successful electrification in sids more specifically we analyse the independent and interdependent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption on per capita household electricity consumption in sids using data from 34 sids over the period 1996 2009 the results show that although the independent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption are sensitive to model specification these two factors do have an interdependent impact on per capita household electricity consumption democratization has positive effects on provision of electricity to the general population only when there is a certain level of corruption control in place the results imply a that it is important for policy actors to acknowledge the interaction between regime type and the quality of implementing institutions and b when planning electrification projects in sids it is necessary to have information about the social and political context in order to design the most effective projects

off grid energy services for the poor introducing led lighting in the millennium villages project in malawi lanterns that use light emitting diodes leds powered by batteries which are in turn charged by grid electricity or small solar panels have emerged as a cost competitive alternative to kerosene and other fuel based lighting technologies offering brighter light for longer duration at equal or lower cost over time this paper presents lessons learned from the introduction of solar led lanterns in rural malawi we discuss a market based program using new and existing local commercial structures such as vendors and cooperatives to sell lanterns to village households without subsidy the paper addresses issues of enterprise development community interactions and survey data on lighting use and expenditure patterns before and after led lantern introduction households that purchased a lantern reported high levels of satisfaction with the led lanterns as well as savings in annual kerosene expenditure comparable to the price of the lantern these households also reported monthly incomes comparable to the price of the led lanterns whereas non adopters surveyed reported monthly incomes about half this level suggesting a need for financing options to maximize adoption among poorer populations in rural areas these results suggest that similar market based models of led lighting technology dissemination have the potential to be replicated and scaled up in other off grid regions in developing countries however viability of local cooperatives and supply chains for lantern products over the medium to long term remain to be assessed

business models for model businesses lessons from renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries against the background of mounting research suggesting entrepreneurship as a means of increasing the uptake of renewable energy technologies rets in developing countries this paper presents the findings of an exploratory investigation into the business models used by renewable energy entrepreneurs in such countries forty three entrepreneurs were interviewed in 28 developing countries and secondary information about country and regional conditions was analysed we chose the business model canvas as an analytical tool and the findings shed new light on established renewable energy business types three different types of businesses were identified consultants distributors and integrators yet there is also some overlap between these types these business types appeared to parallel the life cycle progression of the business but this requires further research a key component of the study was to assess whether the types of businesses were related to country level conditions to assess the impact of regional differences these comparisons revealed consistencies between country level characteristics and the entrepreneurs choice of business model conclusions suggest that different regions may support certain business models more than others due to differing levels of government interest in renewables governance and policy support and the relative ease of doing business

energy microfinance intervention for below poverty line households in india more than 72 of india s population resides in rural india1 and it also has a high concentration of people living under abject poverty of the total rural population 27 1 28 3 lives below the poverty line2 bpl a lack of energy finance options is hampering the quality of life of the bpl community the members of this disadvantaged household which forms 27 1 and 23 6 of the india s rural and urban population3 has no ready access to mainstream finance or know how of sustainable energy products nor do they have access to energy service providing agency this lack of energy finance options has provided the marginalized population little means to break the conventional energy paradigm and the corresponding poverty cycle considering the afore mentioned problem we propose an energy microfinance intervention or a model that encompasses two independent entities one has an energy expertise and the other possesses finance management skills alternately we also propose a special purpose entity that comprises of these two entities this entity fosters different institutional technical and financial engineering approaches to the provision of energy finance and infrastructure services necessary for poverty alleviation

modern energy access to all in rural india an integrated implementation strategy abstract expanding energy access to the rural population of india presents a critical challenge for its government the presence of 364 million people without access to electricity and 726 million who rely on biomass for cooking indicate both the failure of past policies and programs and the need for a radical redesign of the current system we propose an integrated implementation framework with recommendations for adopting business principles with innovative institutional regulatory financing and delivery mechanisms the framework entails establishment of rural energy access authorities and energy access funds both at the national and regional levels to be empowered with enabling regulatory policies capital resources and the support of multi stakeholder partnership these institutions are expected to design lead manage and monitor the rural energy interventions at the other end trained entrepreneurs would be expected to establish bioenergy based micro enterprises that will produce and distribute energy carriers to rural households at an affordable cost the escos will function as intermediaries between these enterprises and the international carbon market both in aggregating carbon credits and in trading them under cdm if implemented such a program could address the challenges of rural energy empowerment by creating access to modern energy carriers and climate change mitigation

how to achieve full electrification lessons from latin america electricity coverage in latin america has increased substantially in recent decades rising from 50 of the population in 1970 to more than 95 in 2015 growth however slowed in the 1990s as many countries experienced difficulties in extending their networks further in particular to serve those living in isolated and rural areas in spite of this the process of electrification was not interrupted and at the beginning of the 2010s decade most countries in the region were able to provide access to electricity to almost all of their populations in this paper we examine the main strategies used in latin america to increase coverage and argue that only a combination of policy efforts has made it possible to achieve the current situation we also examine the remaining obstacles at policy and institutional levels to achieving full coverage

can product demonstrations create markets for sustainable energy technology a randomized controlled trial in rural india abstract the literature on sustainable energy technology sees informational barriers as a major obstacle to technology adoption in the case of solar home systems recent studies report positive socio economic effects on households but technology adoption remains underwhelming in collaboration with a local solar technology provider we conduct a randomized controlled trial in 75 large villages in the state of uttar pradesh india to examine the ability of village solar demonstrations to create markets for solar home systems we find no effect of such demonstrations on technology sales awareness or perceptions of solar technology technology adopters report high levels of satisfaction with product quality and service suggesting that the null finding cannot be attributed to poor technology these findings suggest that lack of awareness is not a binding constraint on the growth of solar technology markets in the study area based on additional surveys we find evidence suggesting that access to credit from rural banks is an important explanation for variation in sales across villages these results do not prove that information and awareness are irrelevant in general but they show that even carefully designed marketing campaigns cannot increase demand for new products in the presence of a binding credit constraint

estimates of energy subsidies in china and impact of energy subsidy reform abstract for a transitional economy such as china some energy subsidies are reasonable and sometimes even necessary for achieving social goals however with rising energy prices and environmental concerns we see conflicts emerging between energy subsidies energy demand supply fundamentals and climate change considerations energy subsidies have important implications for sustainable development through their effects on energy use efficiency and the choice of fuel source this paper applies the price gap approach to estimate china s energy subsidies results indicate that china s energy subsidies amounted to cny 356 73 billion in 2007 equivalent to 1 43 of gdp subsidies for oil products consumption are the largest followed by subsidies for the electricity and coal sectors furthermore a cge model is used to analyze the economic impacts of energy subsidy reforms our findings show that removing energy subsidies will result in a significant fall in energy demand and emissions but will have negative impacts on macroeconomic variables we conclude that offsetting policies could be adopted such that certain shares of these subsidies are reallocated to support other sustainable development measures which could lead to reducing energy intensity and favoring the environment

more heat and light abstract one hundred years before the advent of modern power systems william blake in the marriage of heaven and hell argued with the devil asserting that energy is eternal delight that delight however remains beyond the reach of the two to three billion of people disadvantaged by a lack of modern energy services a number that has remained relatively unchanged over recent decades this is arguably the most disturbing of insights from an examination of global energy use trends and a simple clear justification for a political prioritisation of the issue it is widely accepted that a lack of access to energy services is a fundamental hindrance to human social and economic development addressing it comprehensively would have enormous multiple benefits however current efforts are woefully insufficient in scale scope and design and attempting to address the issue solely as part of wider poverty reduction policies is likely to be sub optimal we discuss energy policy with a focus on energy security as an effective vehicle for large scale action in providing modern clean energy services to this end we outline specific and limited examples of where international cooperation could play a role supporting national actions and ensuring universal access

rural electricity access in south asia is grid extension the remedy a critical review abstract despite the historical priority to grid based electrification in south asia two out of every five people in the region still live without access to electricity due to various limitations of conventional grid based rural electrification as brought out by a number of studies and reports demand for alternative models such as renewable energy based off grid and distributed generation solutions are gaining increasing attention globally however due to the absence of any study that could juxtapose these two modes in terms of their merits and demerits it is difficult to infer on their relative superiority or inferiority in view of that this paper makes an attempt to connect the dots by carrying out an extensive review of the literature to analyse the role of grid and off grid options in facilitating rural electrification and come out with a comparative assessment of their costs and impacts on the south asian countries the paper infers that instead of considering each of the modes of electrification in a standalone manner and perceiving them as mutually exclusive or competing with one another as usually perceived in the policy sphere off grid electrification can actually be considered as a complementary mode and should ideally be integrated with grid expansion to serve the bigger cause of ensuring universal and sustainable rural electrification in south asia

sustainable model for financial viability of decentralized biomass gasifier based power projects this paper made a modest attempt for designing a sustainable model for financial viability of biomass gasifier power projects for enhancing electricity access in india and other developing countries for long term sustainability of distributed generation projects in remote rural areas viability from both project implementing agency pia and the end users need to be ensured the minimum required prices of electricity from both pia and end user perspective have been estimated while for pia the cost recovery is the key for viability the affordability to pay the electricity cost is crucial for the end users analysis carried out in this paper on the basis of data obtained from operational projects implemented in india reveal that it is essential to operate the system at a higher capacity utilization factor while this can be achieved though creating convergence with locally relevant economic activity it is also observed that micro enterprises cannot pay beyond a certain price of electricity to keep it sustainable this paper sets forth a case for developing a regulatory mechanism to extend the tariff fixation for the projects and providing cross subsidies to ensure long term sustainability of off grid project

contestation contingency and justice in the nordic low carbon energy transition the five nordic countries have aggressive climate and energy policies in place and have already emerged to be leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency denmark is renowned for its pioneering use of wind energy finland and sweden bioenergy norway hydroelectricity and iceland geothermal energy all countries aim to be virtually fossil free by 2050 this study explores the nordic energy transition through the lens of three interconnected research questions how are they doing it what challenges exist and what broader lessons result for energy policy the study firstly investigates the pathways necessary for these five countries to achieve their low carbon goals it argues that a concerted effort must be made to 1 promote decentralized and renewable forms of electricity supply 2 shift to more sustainable forms of transport 3 further improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings and 4 adopt carbon capture and storage technologies for industry however the section that follows emphasizes some of the empirical barriers the nordic transition must confront namely political contestation technological contingency and social justice and recognition concerns the study concludes with implications for what such historical progress and future transition pathways mean for both energy researchers and energy planners

the market valuation of the fgis grain quality characteristics the issue addressed in this paper is whether the grain quality factors used by the federal grain inspection service in determining the quality grades of wheat exported by the united states including test weight dockage moisture content percentage of foreign material percentage of shrunken and broken kernels and protein content are characteristics that influence the price of wheat for export using shiplot data on the transactions price for hard red winter wheat hard red spring wheat and soft white wheat and the associated quality characteristics covering the period january 1990 to october 1991 and exported to 63 countires the results suggest that only the test weight and the protein content are characteristics consistently valued by the market

dissemination of cooking energy alternatives in india a review abstract energy requirements for cooking account for 36 of total primary energy consumption in india the rural and urban populaces depend mainly on non commercial fuels to meet their energy needs diverse urban growth patterns have led to structural changes in economy and have important ramifications on energy consumption in household sector it is observed that india follows income based ladder starting with fuelwood and ending with sophisticated fuels like liquefied petroleum gas lpg and electricity this paper discusses cooking energy dissemination in the country with an objective of understanding the underlying socioeconomic factors governing the utilization of various fuels energy carriers in cooking the diffusion of renewable energy devices is observed to be far below their estimated potential policy interventions required for better dissemination of renewable energy based devices are also discussed

induction stoves as an option for clean cooking in rural india abstract as part of a programme on access to clean cooking alternatives in rural india induction stoves were introduced in nearly 4000 rural households in himachal pradesh one of the few highly electrified states in india analysis of primary usage information from 1000 rural households revealed that electricity majorly replaced liquid petroleum gas lpg generally used as a secondary cooking fuel but did not influence a similar shift from traditional mud stoves as the primary cooking technology likewise the shift from firewood to electricity as a primary cooking fuel was observed in only 5 of the households studied country level analysis indicates that rural households falling in lower monthly per capita expenditure mpce classes have lesser access to electricity and clean cooking options than those falling in higher mpce classes again only three states in india with high levels of rural household electrification report consumption statuses more than 82 kwh per month the estimated mean for electricity consumption by induction stoves overall the results of the study indicate that induction stoves will have limited potential in reducing the consumption of firewood and lpg if included in energy access programmes that too only in regions where high levels of electrification exist

valuation of the quality characteristics of japanese soybean imports the implicit prices of the physical and intrinsic characteristics of soybeans exported by the united states are estimated the results suggest that the us grades and standards assigned to a shipment either do not provide information valued by the market or the existence of us grades and standards has resulted in the definition of a standard of quality that is met by all exporters additionally in japan there are two identifiable soybean markets a premium food bean market and a crushing market the soybeans going into the food market for processing can be identified by their lower oil content lower percentage of split and damaged beans and a lower amount of foreign material as well as smaller shipment sizes

power sector reform in developing countries mismatched agendas power sector reform is rapidly spreading across all corners of the developing world at an alarmingly rapid pace while the rationales for reform seem to have gained acceptance among the stakeholders the reform model and process are contested this paper examines the impacts of reform using the promised outcomes as a basis for analysis the ability of reform to meet the developmental challenges facing the reformers is explored it concludes that reform has had some achievements if conventional performance indicators are used but also questions the validity of some of these indicators reform has however not fulfilled many of its goals and the prevailing recipes are likely to leave developing countries socially and economically worse off than in the pre reform period progressive government intervention is needed to shift reform process towards a more responsible development path

reducing subsidies on household fuels in india how will it affect the poor kerosene and lpg are widely used in households in india for lighting and cooking these fuels have historically been subsidized as part of the restructuring of the energy sector the government is committed to limiting these subsidies this paper examines the impact of reducing energy subsidies on the welfare of the poor the paper uses data from nationally representative surveys of over 100 000 households the paper concludes that the case for reducing lpg subsidies is strong although the kerosene subsidy is an inefficient means of subsidizing fuel use by the poor reduction in it will need to be supported by other policies that would limit the adverse impacts

a world away and close to home the multi scalar making of indonesia s energy landscape abstract indonesia is the world s largest producer of palm oil a feedstock for agrofuels and an important source of direct nutritional energy for human consumption the country is also an important global supplier of coal petroleum and natural gas while per capita fossil energy consumption is relatively low for biomass and fossil fuel based energy indonesia has been transforming its energy landscape in order to provide for foreign demand the landscape both in literal and in the figurative sense simultaneously forms and is formed by the material resource flows required for society s biophysical reproduction i e the social metabolism in the context of the ongoing energy transition both are subject to change in our analysis of indonesia s palm oil production we find that the drivers shaping the country s resource use as well as its energy landscape are located at a spatial temporal and functional distance from where they take effect the energy landscape and resource use patterns are formed across levels of scale from the subnational to the global energy policy confined to the framework of the sovereign nation state cannot effectively address the complex drivers of increasingly detrimental environmental change associated with energy transitions nor can it trigger a sustainability transition

the integration of the market for soybeans and soybean products abstract this article addresses the question of whether soybeans soybean meal and soybean oil produced in the usa and exported were part of a single world geographic market during the decade of the 1980s an answer to this question is sought using an approach to defining a geographic market based on the notion of instantaneous causality the empirical results based on prices for soybeans soybean meal and soybean oil for three spatially diffuse locations suggest that there was but a single identifiable world market for these commodities over the period of study this has implications for the continued presence of soybean production subsidies and discussions on international agreements designed to reduce or eliminate these subsidies

corporate contributions altruistic or for profit existing literature has focused on three rationales for corporate philanthropy through the firm giving corporate statesmanship and profit motivated giving the profit motivation argument was exa

corporate philanthropy in the united kingdom the increasing demands placed on private welfare services and calls for business to fulfil its social responsibilities have heightened interest in corporate charitable donations in the united kingdom adjustments to the corporation tax system have been made to encourage companies to give more the article outlines the legal and fiscal background to company giving examines its magnitude and reports on a survey of company practice

policy framework on energy access and key development indicators ecowas interventions and the case of ghana abstract energy has become the main driver for development as industries grow agricultural sectors become more modernized economies boom and countries become wealthy there are still vast majority of people living under the poverty line especially in the ecowas region the purpose of this study is to explore how improvements in energy access can be a key driver in economic development and progress in the ecowas region data for the study was obtained from the database of the world bank a regression analysis was carried out to establish the relationships between energy access and development indicators the paper suggests the need for policy makers in the ecowas region to focus on targets such as household access consumption of electricity and ease of use instead on supply targets that focus merely on physical coverage a case on how ghana is improving energy access is presented

understanding the political economy and key drivers of energy access in addressing national energy access priorities and policies abstract globally 1 5 billion people lack access to electricity and nearly 3 billion lack access to modern cooking energy options of the world s energy poor 95 are in asia and sub saharan africa within asia almost 80 of electricity deprived and 86 of biomass dependent populations are in the big 5 countries bangladesh china india indonesia and pakistan in this paper we discuss the broad contours of the political economy of energy access in these countries the political economy is assessed through an examination of three sustainability objectives accessibility of physical infrastructure energy service delivery and conformance to social goals the key areas of concern include emphasis on supply driven grid electricity vested power dynamics favouring affluent and urban areas unreliability of energy service provision and misdirected and misappropriated subsidies the above mentioned issues are responsible for limiting accelerated achievement of universal energy access in the big 5 countries and need to be addressed through innovative approaches the paper emphasizes the need for firm commitments policy convergence and the implementation of pro poor equitable energy policies through a broad based energy framework of bench marked technology neutral energy provisioning that ensures reliability and equity it highlights the need for reorienting of the subsidy regime and incorporating energy service delivery indicators in monitoring and reporting mechanisms

imperfect duties and corporate philanthropy a kantian approach nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in society unfortunately many such organizations are chronically underfunded and struggle to meet their objectives these facts have significant implications for corporate philanthropy and kant s notion of imperfect duties under the concept of imperfect duties businesses would have wide discretion regarding which charities receive donations how much money to give and when such donations take place a perceived problem with imperfect duties is that they can lead to moral laxity that is a failure on the part of businesses to fulfill their financial obligations to nonprofit organizations this article argues the problem of moral laxity rests on a misinterpretation of kantian ethics and therefore is really not a problem at all as such we argue corporate philanthropy while an imperfect duty should be interpreted more akin to perfect duties and as a consequence moral laxity does not arise for those corporations committed to acting on the basis of the moral law more specifically firms have duty based obligations on the basis of benevolence and as good corporate citizens to help fund non profit organizations

addressing the renewable energy financing gap in africa to promote universal energy access integrated renewable energy financing in malawi abstract the sustainable energy for all initiative is a global initiative launched by the united nations secretary general in 2012 with a goal of providing universal access to modern energy services by 2030 to achieve this goal substantial financial and technological investments will be required at a rate far exceeding historical levels sub saharan africa has a 30 5 electrification rate and policy reform issues to improve electrification have been poorly implemented thereby sprinkling doubt as to whether the region would be able to achieve 100 access to electricity for all by the year 2030 sub saharan africa faces a tough challenge in order to achieve universal access to modern energy services since the region fails to attract energy sector investments there is also a general perception that the region contributes very little to global greenhouse gas emissions hence offers few opportunities to reduce these emissions consequently missing out on attracting climate finance projects a guarantee of power purchase has been shown to attract energy sector investments however guarantees of power purchases such as feed in tariffs are experiencing slow market growth in developing countries because of a range of technical regulatory and financial barriers using malawi as a case study of a developing country this review provides a perspective from a sub saharan africa least developed country as to the various electrification renewable energy deployment and climate change management challenges that still require urgent attention this study shows that despite the perceived regulatory and financial challenges malawi can integrate and use a combination of adapted price guarantee schemes cross subsidies and environmental taxes in order to support initiatives aimed at supporting the country s development of renewable energy sources and hence indirectly support the sustainable energy for all initiative

exploring the link between products and services in low income markets evidence from solar home systems one of the key challenges of energy access in emerging markets and developing countries is how to reach households and communities that are unlikely to get a grid connection in the long term or those that are connected to the grid but suffer from regular blackouts or low voltage by surveying entrepreneurs selling solar home systems shss on a commercial basis in emerging and developing countries this study is one of the first attempts to quantify the key elements of four potential product service systems psss cash credit leasing and fee for service whereas the fee for service approach was found to be suitable only under certain conditions all psss share two key elements for successful market deployment one or more years of maintenance and customer support in financing these customers new asset moreover it appears that private sector companies are in principle able to deliver shss to households with incomes greater than usd 1000 per year the implications for policy makers and development aid agencies are first to include maintenance services into public programmes or public private partnerships and second to explicitly consider financial risks for entrepreneurs e g customer commitment and repayment conditions

the geography of energy and education leaders laggards and lessons for achieving primary and secondary school electrification even though large scale electricity networks have existed for more than a century thousands of primary and secondary schools have no electricity more than 80 percent of children in sub saharan africa attend primary schools that lack electricity more than a quarter of village schools in india lack electricity access and fewer than half of peruvian schools are electrified collectively nearly 200 million children attend schools not connected to any type of electricity supply a number greater than the populations of nigeria bangladesh russia or japan throughout the globe certain countries and regions lead the way in school electrification while others lag behind through the lens of energy and education geography this article identifies a series of interconnected challenges to electrifying schools obstacles span financing and technical reliability to bias in educational and energy funding to inability of electrification to yield net positive learning outcomes despite these challenges solutions do exist as the activities of emerging energy leaders demonstrate high upfront costs can be mitigated by tapping into diverse financing streams and distributing risk through public private partnerships technical problems can be countered by stable policy frameworks with strong technical standards and certification schemes electrification efforts can be coupled with household and cooking programs that build community this article shows that schools can provide students with the light heat and modern tools of teaching they deserve if planners investors and policymakers make determined coordinated efforts at providing energy for education

overcoming obstacles against effective solar lighting interventions in south asia abstract basing on our devised world bank s design principles for effective renewable energy projects in developing countries and an in depth analysis of our two solar lighting projects in bangladesh and india this paper explores three key obstacles that constrain poor people from obtaining solar lighting financial exclusion weak governance and passive ngo and customer participation the low take up rate has a social and psychological impact this paper recommends creating easy access to credit establishing a robust complaint system and developing strategic partnership to overcome the obstacles

aid under fire development projects and civil conflict we estimate the causal effect of a large development program on conflict in the philippines through a regression discontinuity design that exploits an arbitrary poverty threshold used to assign eligibility for the program we find that barely eligible municipalities experienced a large increase in conflict casualties compared to barely ineligible ones this increase is mostly due to insurgent initiated incidents in the early stages of program preparation our results are consistent with the hypothesis that insurgents try to sabotage the program because its success would weaken their support in the population

what moves and works broadening the consideration of energy poverty greater detail on the specific technological and planning challenges facing energy deprived developing economies is required to improve energy policy making and development assistance practice the current literature tends to highlight electricity services and to a lesser extent clean cooking this article calls for a closer look at mobility and mechanical power as essential energy services in addition to a refinement of the specific institutional arrangements needed to reduce energy poverty and deprivation this article augments and refines arguments made by morgan bazilian and his colleagues in their viewpoint more heat and light

end use performance uncertainty and competition in international wheat markets the input characteristic model icm is expanded in this paper to account for technical coefficient uncertainty the model is used to analyze effects of price and quality on competition in the u k wheat import market results are used to identify critical quality characteristics and impacts of technical coefficient uncertainty on import demand the expected values for most characteristics of u s wheat have greater variances than those of canadian wheat results show that both the characteristic s level and variance are important in determining import market shares

scaling up biomass gasifier use an application specific approach abstract biomass energy accounts for about 11 of the global primary energy supply and it is estimated that about 2 billion people worldwide depend on biomass for their energy needs yet most of the use of biomass is in a primitive and inefficient manner primarily in developing countries leading to a host of adverse implications on human health environment workplace conditions and social well being therefore the utilization of biomass in a clean and efficient manner to deliver modern energy services to the world s poor remains an imperative for the development community one possible approach to do this is through the use of biomass gasifiers although significant efforts have been directed towards developing and deploying biomass gasifiers in many countries scaling up their dissemination remains an elusive goal based on an examination of biomass gasifier development demonstration and deployment efforts in india a country with more than two decades of experiences in biomass gasifier development and dissemination this article identifies a number of barriers that have hindered widespread deployment of biomass gasifier based energy systems it also suggests a possible approach for moving forward which involves a focus on specific application areas that satisfy a set of criteria that are critical to deployment of biomass gasifiers and then tailoring the scaling up strategy to the characteristics of the user groups for that application our technical financial economic and institutional analysis suggests an initial focus on four categories of applications small and medium enterprises the informal sector biomass processing industries and some rural areas may be particularly feasible and fruitful

the trials and tribulations of the village energy security programme vesp in india the indian ministry of new and renewable energy mnre launched the village energy security programme vesp in 2004 but discontinued it during the 12th five year plan starting in 2012 after a series of unexpected challenges planners structured the program so that a village energy committee vec ran a decentralized village program involving biomass gasifiers straight vegetable oil svo systems biogas plants and improved cookstoves this suite of technologies was intended to produce electricity and thermal energy to meet the total energy requirements of rural communities at the end of january 2011 a total of 79 vesp projects were sanctioned in 9 states and 65 of these projects were fully commissioned yet more than half were not operational the mnre envisaged that the vesp would provide energy services to eradicate poverty improve health reduce drudgery enhance education raise agricultural productivity create employment generate income and reduce migration however vesp projects have had limited success and the trials and tribulations of the vesp offers important lessons for policymakers launching rural energy programs in india and other developing economies

the management nexus of imperfect duty kantian views of virtuous relations reasoned discourse and due diligence a nexus of imperfect duty defined as positive commitments that have practical limits describes business behavior toward building affable and virtuous relations maintaining reasoned social discourse and performing the due diligence necessary for making knowledgeable business decisions a theory of the development and extent of the limits of these imperfect managerial duties is presented here a theory that in part explains the activities and personnel included under the firm s umbrella as a result the nexus of imperfect duty is shown to complement the perfect duty based nexus of contracts theory of the firm the existence of flexible trade offs involving these duties trade offs limited by contractual arrangements whether explicit or implicit is shown to be one of the advantages of imperfect duty for developing business relations

the implementation of decentralised biogas plants in assam ne india the impact and effectiveness of the national biogas and manure management programme abstract the indian government s national biogas and manure management programme nbmmp seeks to deliver renewable energy services to households across the country by facilitating the deployment of family sized 3 anaerobic biogas digesters nbmmp policy is implemented at three levels from government and state nodal agency via private contractors to households creating multiple institutional arrangements we analysed the scheme in assam north east india focusing on how policy was implemented across two districts and interviewing stakeholders in rural households state and non state institutions the top down supply side approach to policy enables government to set targets and require individual states to deploy the scheme which benefits households who can afford to participate nbmmp delivered improved energy service outcomes to a majority of households although the level of knowledge and understanding of the technology amongst users was limited training and education of householders and particularly women is needed in relation to the maintenance of digesters feedstock suitability and the environmental and potential livelihood benefits of digestate a revised bottom up approach to policy which highlights the contextual and demand side issues around adopting the technology may deliver monetary benefits from market competition and enable development of community focused microfinance schemes to improve the affordability of biogas systems

rural electrification policy and institutional linkages some of the problems that have besieged rural electrification in most developing countries include inadequate policies weak institutional frameworks and limited financing in the last two decades governments in developing countries have been making various efforts both at the policy level and in financing to facilitate increased levels of rural electrification however the introduction of market based reforms in the power sector in the last decade has affected the institutional and financing arrangements for rural electrification the reforms have also affected the rate of electrification and affordability of electricity there is need therefore to establish the extent to which the reforms have affected access and affordability of electricity in rural areas and to develop appropriate policy and the supporting institutional structures to align rural electrification with reformed power sectors it is cardinal to establish how privatised and commercialised power companies in a reformed power sector could contribute to rural electrification and the role of governments and government agents in facilitating expanded access to electricity in rural areas

access to modern energy services an economic and policy framework abstract affordable and accessible modern energy services are a pre requisite for development economic environmental or social and are crucial to reduce poverty and sustain growth hence there is a need to promote the uptake of modern energy the present study investigates the issue of accessibility of modern energy services in relation to three indicators availability affordability and reliability and suggest practical ways of evaluating them and identifies various strategies to provide them to the needy households in a cost effective manner promoting the development of small rural enterprises is a key contributor to achieve this goal and a central aspect in this promotion is the large scale diffusion of sustainable energy technologies which provide affordable and reliable services the suggested framework helps the policymakers to identify technologies that are better than others under the present conditions implementing and scaling up the energy demand requires collaboration among various actors like households local bodies energy utilities governments entrepreneurs research organisations non governmental organisations community groups financial institutions and international agencies

connecting political economies of energy in south africa abstract the south african energy debate is and will remain a heated one given south africa s history of racial inequality and contemporary concerns around sustainability much of it rightly focuses on the links between energy poverty and the environment yet many contributions to the mainstream debate seem to have a somewhat one sided focus that might hamper rather than stimulate the understanding of these links they either display a strong technical quantitative bias and or lean towards rather simplistic ideas about policy processes and dynamics the article argues that many of these analyses could benefit greatly from a critical focus on the political economy of energy the political economic power structures that influence both many energy policies and the issues of energy equality and sustainability two major global developments emphasise the importance of this focus the recent financial crisis and south africa s role in the increasingly tense geopolitics of energy in africa the article concludes with some suggestions on how currently disparate political economies of energy could be better connected

hedonic prices for a nondurable good the case of breakfast cereals numerous studies have estimated hedonic price functions for durable goods in this paper the authors apply the methodology to breakfast cereals a nondurable good they employ maximum likelihood to estimate the hedonic price functions using data from three large supermarkets the price function depends on characteristics that provide taste nutrition and convenience to consumers and the estimates yield insights into pricing policies consumer preferences and consumer use of information copyright 1991 by mit press

improved stoves in india a study of sustainable business models burning of biomass for cooking is associated with health problems and climate change impacts many previous efforts to disseminate improved stoves primarily by governments and ngos have not been successful based on interviews with 12 organizations selling improved biomass stoves we assess the results to date and future prospects of commercial stove operations in india specifically we consider how the ability of these businesses to achieve scale and become self sustaining has been influenced by six elements of their respective business models design customers targeted financing marketing channel strategy and organizational characteristics the two companies with the most stoves in the field shared in common generous enterprise financing a sophisticated approach to developing a sales channel and many person years of management experience in marketing and operations and yet the financial sustainability of improved stove sales to households remains far from assured the only company in our sample with demonstrated profitability is a family owned business selling to commercial rather than household customers the stove sales leader is itself now turning to the commercial segment to maintain flagging cash flow casting doubt on the likelihood of large positive impacts on health from sales to households in the near term

a sustainable biogas model in china the case study of beijing deqingyuan biogas project according to the paris agreement china has the ambition to develop non fossil energy which will account for 20 of the total energy consumption in 2030 china has abundant biomass potential implying the bioenergy should be an important option of non fossil energy in this analysis we present an representative biogas project the deqingyuan project dqy in beijing and conduct a cost benefit analysis for the whole value chain dqy is the first large scale biogas project in china that utilizes 100 chicken manure as a feedstock and integrates biogas production with ecological agriculture using advanced technologies dqy uses 80 000 t of chicken manure and 100 000 t of sewage each year to produce biogas which generates 14 million kwh of power annually and obtains an additional revenue of rmb 8 million yuan each year through the clean development mechanism cdm operating as an example of a sustainable bioenergy model dqy accomplishes the full use of a recycled resource while showing consideration for animal welfare during the entire production which is a fundamental component of the new rural energy strategy the circular economy model of dqy plays a prominent role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions mitigating pollution and increasing employment among other benefits this paper aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the typical demonstration model dqy in utilization of agricultural waste in china and further proposes a general development model of chinese biogas in the future

an integrated framework for rural electrification adopting a user centric approach to business model development rural electrification re has gained prominence over the past two decades as an effective means for improving living conditions this growth has largely been driven by socio economic and political imperatives to improve rural livelihood and by technological innovation based on a content analysis of 232 scholarly articles the literature is categorized into four focal lenses technology institutional viability and user centric we find that the first two dominate the re debate the viability lens has been used less frequently whilst the user centric lens began to engage scholars as late as 2007 we provide an overview of the technological institutional and viability lenses and elaborate upon the user centric lens in greater detail for energy policy and practice we combine the four lenses to develop a business model framework that policy makers practitioners and investors could use to assess re projects or to design future rural electrification strategies

emerging regulatory challenges facing the indian rural electrification programme abstract the purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the regulatory issues emerging from the newly launched programme of rural electricity access in india we focus on two broad areas namely regulatory issues related to the organisation structuring of the activities and issues related to subsidy and tariffs the paper looks into the alternative organisational arrangements being used by the programme and identifies problem areas through a responsibility mapping the tariff principle being followed by the programme is then analysed considering the alternative organisational forms and issues related to such pricing policies are identified possible alternative pricing options are then suggested the paper finds that while the franchisee model is an innovative idea it raises issues that the regulators should be concerned with the programme has so far relied on the simplest franchisee model because of its ease of implementation but a transition to more complex alternatives would require careful considerations

why do corporations give to charity this paper explores whether corporate contributions should be tax dedu ctible within the more general context of an examination of the profi t and utility maximization motives driving contributions the theoret ical section develops a formal structural model of the contributions process illustrates comparative statics and derives a set of empiri cally testable hypotheses using a new source of firm data the empir ical results indicate that profit maximization is an important motive driving contributions this finding supports the current tax deducti ble status of contributions up to a seldom encoun tered ceiling and favors a reform that allows firms to treat contributions as ordinary business expenses copyright 1988 by the university of chicago

measuring energy poverty focusing on what matters abstract the provision of modern energy services is recognised as a critical foundation for sustainable development and is central to the everyday lives of people effective policies to dramatically expand modern energy access need to be grounded in a robust information base metrics that can be used for comparative purposes and to track progress towards targets therefore represent an essential support tool this paper reviews the relevant literature and discusses the adequacy and applicability of existing instruments to measure energy poverty drawing on those insights it proposes a new composite index to measure energy poverty both the associated methodology and initial results for several african countries are discussed whereas most existing indicators and composite indices focus on assessing the access to energy or the degree of development related to energy our new index the multidimensional energy poverty index mepi focuses on the deprivation of access to modern energy services it captures both the incidence and intensity of energy poverty and provides a new tool to support policy making

enabling mini grid development in rural india summary rural electrification rates in india lag behind government goals in part due to the inability of distribution companies discoms to fund central grid expansion in the absence of central grid electrification mini grids offer significant potential for an immediate pathway toward rural electrification and the attendant gains in economic growth and productivity yet private investment in mini grids has been virtually absent in india using a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis we find that mini grids based on solar pv power and storage are more economical than incumbent energy services available to households without central grid connection under current law a prospective entrepreneur in india does not require a license or certification in order to build a mini grid and subsequently provide electricity services in the area covered by said installation conversely there is no legal or regulatory framework that specifies what is to happen if the central grid were to be extended to an area that is already covered by a mini grid we report detailed survey evidence from interviews with entrepreneurs analysts and policymakers whose assessments converge on the same point mini grid investments would be jeopardized in the event of central grid extension precisely because discoms would by regulatory order provide electricity services at highly subsidized rates well below their full economic cost our fieldwork suggests that the threat of central grid extension is a gateway barrier preventing mini grid development in india the issues associated with the gateway barrier have common elements with the so called holdup problem as identified in the economics of organizations there have been two recent federal policy guidelines and one actual state level policy addressing the regulatory status of mini grids we examine the effectiveness of these policies proposals in terms of an entrepreneur s willingness to develop mini grids in the future