Energy Needs and Sources in Rural Communities

• Energy needs in rural communities are divided into three categories:
  • Energy for households
  • Energy for community services
  • Energy for productive uses
• Each category has unique technical and economic requirements, providing different benefits.

Energy for Households

• Used for cooking, water and space heating, lighting, and powering electronics like mobile phones, radios, fans, and televisions.

Energy for Community Services

• Includes schools, medical facilities, churches, and community centers.
• Typical uses are lighting, ITC(Internet, telecommunications, computers), healthcare equipment (refrigeration for vaccines and medicines, suction machines, diagnostic equipment), and clean hot water.

Energy for Productive Uses

• Refers to income-generating activities, often related to agriculture in rural areas.
• Includes land preparation, cultivation, irrigation pumping, harvesting, and milling of grain.

Fuel Sources for Rural Needs

• A variety of sources can be used to meet these needs.
• The spectrum of fuels includes: electricity, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), kerosene, charcoal, fuel wood, animal dung, and crop residue.
• Energy content varies by fuel source: Charcoal at 30.8 MJ/kg, Dung at 14.5 MJ/kg, Electricity at 3.6 MJ/kWh, Kerosene at 35.0 MJ/liter, etc.

Example Calculation of Fuel Use

• A household uses 100 GJ of firewood, 10 GJ of kerosene, and 10 GJ of LPG each year.
• Quantities are computed based on energy content.
• Fuel wood: 100 GJ / 0.016 GJ/kg = 6250.00 kg
• Kerosene: 10 GJ / 0.035 GJ/liter = 285.71 liters
• LPG: 10 GJ / 0.045 GJ/kg = 222.22 kg

Attributes for Fuel Choice

• Three attributes that influence a household's decision on fuel:
  • Quality
  • Convenience
  • Cost
• Quality characteristics: high efficiency, controllable output, consistent performance, low/zero emissions.
• Convenience: delivered/locally available, reliable supply, little/no processing, easy to use, versatile, safe, no storage needed.
• Cost: Low cost of fuel and equipment.

Energy Ladder

• It is the transition from low-desirability fuel sources to high-desirability ones, associated with increased income.
• Households tend to switch from less to more desirable fuels as their income rises.
• Wealth, income, and educational attainment also influence fuel transition.

Calculating Primary Energy Consumption

• A family of five uses 1 kg firewood/person/day for cooking and 2.44 liters kerosene/month for lighting.
• Annual firewood use: 5 x 1 kg x 365 = 1825 kg
• Annual energy for cooking: 1824 kg x 4000 kcal/kg = 7,300,000 kcal
• (1 kcal = 4186.8 J), then 7.3 x10^6 kcal = 30,563.6 MJ
• Annual kerosene use: 12 x 2.44 kg = 29.3 liters
• Annual energy for lighting: 29.3 x 35 = 1025.6 MJ
• Total family energy use: 30,563.6 + 1025.6 = 31,589.2 MJ
• Per person consumption: 31,589.2/5 = 6,317.8 MJ

Energy's Role in Poverty Reduction

• Women and marginalized groups benefit significantly from improved energy access.

Energy's Impact on Social Services

• Healthcare: Reliable energy enables refrigeration for vaccines and powers medical equipment.
• Education: Lighting allows longer study hours, and technology access improves educational quality.
• Public Safety: Energy enables street lighting, communications infrastructure, and portable water supplies.

Future Energy Strategies

• Divided into immediate, medium-term, and long-term action plans/strategies
• Immediate actions include justifying energy prices, optimizing resources, reducing distribution losses, and promoting environmentally friendly energy systems.
• Medium-Term actions include demand management through energy conservation and shifting to less energy-intensive transport systems and renewable energy resources.
• Long-Term actions include efficient energy production, enhancing energy infrastructure, improving efficiency, liberalizing the sector, and investment legislation.

Energy Sources and Classifications

• Energy exists in different forms: electrical, mechanical, chemical, heat, nuclear, and can be extracted from resources like bioenergy, human energy, and kinetic energy.
• Classifications are based on nature, availability, storing capacity, and fall into four groups.
• Primary energy: gross energy before transformation, found/stored in nature (coal, gas, oil, biomass, nuclear energy).
• Secondary energy: usable forms generated from primary energy conversion (electrical energy, steam power, solar thermal, hydrogen energy).

Commercial vs Non-Commercial Energy

• Commercial energy: Sources available in the market for a definite price is the basis for modern industrial, agricultural, and transport development. Includes electricity, coal, and refined petroleum.
• Non-commercial energy: Sources not available in the commercial market for a price is traditionally gathered and not bought, examples are firewood, cattle dung, and agricultural wastes, mainly in rural households.

Renewable vs Non-Renewable Energy

• Renewable energy: Obtained from essentially inexhaustible sources and releases no harmful pollutants, examples include wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and hydroelectric power.
• Non-renewable energy: Finite and irreplaceable at the rate being used; fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas are likely to deplete.

Conventional vs Non-Conventional Energy

• Conventional energy: Traditionally used for many decades, such as during the 1973 oil crisis and are considered finite. Fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas), nuclear fuel, and hydro resources are also in this catergory.
• Non-conventional energy: Considered for large-scale use after the 1973 oil crisis, known as infinite include solar, wind, and biomass.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Fossil Fuels

• Advantages: High calorific value, large electricity generation in a single location, easy transport, efficient use of gas, cost effective, and easy construction.
• Disadvantages: Pollution, limited supply, the destruction of land, and dangerous mining jobs.

Conventional Energy Sources

• Oil: Estimated reserves are 1,050 thousand million barrels (6.4 × 10^21 J), unevenly distributed with 71% in the Middle East; finite resource.
• Coal: Prime source of commercial energy, highly carbonous, reserves of around one million tonnes (3 × 10^22 J), used in thermal power plants to convert heat to electricity.
• Natural Gas: 152 trillion cubic meters (5.9 × 10^21 Joules) proven reserves, major source of electricity, cleaner than other fossil fuels.

Natural Gas Power

• It is not economical to run and vulnerable to supply/operation failures due to pipeline issues.
• A gas power plant is consisted of an air compressor driven by a gas turbine. The compressor air is forced into the combustion chambers where continuous combustion of fuel takes place.The resulting hot gases drive the turbine which in turn drives alternator to produce electricity.

Nuclear Energy (Uranium)

• Economically accessible uranium reserves estimated at three million tonnes with a considerable amount of energy obtained through nuclear fission.
• Uranium-235 Isotope is struck by a slow moving electron in a Nuclear reactor, it nucleus splits into two fragments, producing several neutron and kinetic energy.
• Nuclear energy creates waste disposal problems and potential natural disasters.

Nuclear Power Plant

• The fragments hit the surrounding atom to produce heat and the heat released through fission process is fed into a heat-exchanger through a primary coolant.
• The steam produced in the heat exchanger is used to drive a turbine which in turn drives the alternator to produce electricity

Energy Transformation

• Sequence of transformations between primary and secondary energy is the energy route.

Non-Conventional Energy Sources

• Solar Energy: can be tapped using thermal and photovoltaic conversion systems.
• Max solar radiation received at earth's surface at noon on a bright day is 1 kW/m2 at sea level.
• Earth intercepts 178 billion MW solar power, about 10,000 times world electricity demand.
• Wind Energy: Estimated to be 1.6 × 10^7 MW on earth, is the most economical of all renewable energy sources and is the fastest growing energy source.
• Biomass Energy: From animal and vegetation.
• Important resource for developing countries located especially in rural areas.
• Can be transformed into bio-fuels like biogas, producer gas, ethanol, biodiesel, and charcoal.
• Geothermal Energy: Comes from the Earth's natural heat from the decay of radioactive isotopes of uranium, thorium, and potassium. Its contribution to total energy is minor.

Renewable Energy's Role in Sustainable Development

• Universal access to clean, affordable energy by 2030 is a UN Sustainable Development Goal.
• SDG Goal 7 ensures universal access to modern energy services worldwide by 2030.
• Solar, wind, and hydropower provides clean and sustainable energy
• It contributes to climate change mitigation and promotes energy security. Economic benefits include:
• Job creation
• Energy independence