Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Development, Denpasar
2010
Email: sunday.alexander@machung.ac.id
ABSTRACT: Today, energy needs are increasing rapidly due to the sharp growth of the world population.
Almost 3 billion people, particularly in rural areas live without an electricity supply or energy access because
their country lacks fossil fuel resources. Since 1970 the concept of renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind and biomass have been seriously considered as an alternative to conventional energy sources. Although
now, it still only supplies 2% of global energy demands, mostly in developed countries. According to World
Energy Council Report, the majority of the world population lives in rural areas, approximately 90% of them
in developing countries. This means that at least half the worlds energy consumption should occur in the
rural areas of developing countries. However, technology, cost and environmental are issues that hinder the
implementation of renewable energy in rural area of developing country. In fact, there are many reasons why
renewable energy technology is applicable to rural area. This paper examines the implementation of
renewable energy technology in rural areas of developing countries by exposing world energy problems
today, defining the renewable energy concept, describing the need for renewable energies in rural areas
especially in developing countries, then explains the implementation of renewable energy technology in rural
areas, the constraints and how to solve them. It is obvious that using renewable energy is the best way to fulfil
the need for energy in rural areas in developing countries.
Keywords: renewable energy, rural area, developing countries
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, energy needs are increasing rapidly due to
the sharp growth of the world population. The
largest energy sources are from oil and gas and some
researchers have calculated that the availability of
these kinds of unrenewable energy sources will be
used up in less than 50 years from now and the
production of oil will reach a peak in 2020. It can be
predicted that in the next 20 years there will be a gap
between energy production and consumption.
Therefore we cannot only depend on oil, gas and
coal (conventional energy) to supply our energy
needs. To overcome this problem since 1970 the
concept of renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind and biomass have been seriously considered as
an alternative to conventional energy sources.
Almost 3 billion people, particularly in rural
areas live without an electricity supply or energy
access because their country lacks fossil fuel
resources. However, even though they lack these
fossil fuels, developing countries posses many
sources of renewable energy. In addition, renewable
energy is most suitable to be implemented in remote
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geis/publications/reports/rural/an_evaluation_of_past_inter
ventions/3_4.asp.