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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781780447735 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Practical Action Publishing |
| Publication date: | 03/15/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 108 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
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CHAPTER 1
People's experience of energy
Energy poverty denies millions of people the basic standard of living that should be a right. Without access to energy to cook, heat the home, earn a living and fully benefit from health, education and cultural opportunities, whole communities are forced to live on the margins of society. This chapter examines the impact of energy deprivation on all of these key services and on the people they are meant to serve. It also highlights the transformational effects made possible when energy becomes available.
Many energy services overlap in terms of source and usage, but for the purposes of this analysis we will focus on the following six service categories at a human scale:
* Lighting
Other energy service categorisations exist, and we welcome feedback from readers to inform future editions. Mobility has been omitted on the basis that it is primarily defined by physical links (roads, railways, bridges, etc.) rather than energy access – although such connectivity can help bring fuels and create market access. Water supply (for drinking and irrigation) is another important service often linked with energy, but is omitted as it is more strongly dependent on water resource availability and pipe infrastructure (often gravity flow) than energy. A range of agricultural processing services such as milling and rice de-husking are captured under 'Earning a living' since, where energy is actually used rather than hand-tools, it is usually offered as a service at a cost to users.
This chapter is based on energy services data published in diverse national and regional reports and studies, which have been collected by Practical Action Consulting specialists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It also draws on the testimonies of people living in energy poverty or who have recently benefitted from access, via interviews and focus group discussions. Although there is a marked lack of comprehensive and disaggregated international energy access data, the numbers that are available have been collated and analysed to produce consolidated figures. Project or initiative level data have also been incorporated, especially where national or international numbers are weak.
It is clear that improvements in energy services have a crucial role to play in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Measuring these improvements requires indicators for each energy service. This chapter reviews progress to date in defining these indicators and proposes a set of minimum energy service standards, as well as an index for access to energy supplies.
Universal access to energy services will require additional energy resources and may have environmental impacts. These implications, and the likely impacts on development and the achievement of the MDGs, are also discussed.
The Poor People's Energy Outlook is part of an ongoing research project. Practical Action and partner organisations hope that the content in this chapter will stimulate further debate and activity focused on improving the quality of available data, as well as the definitions and indicators proposed. We welcome your feedback.
Lighting
Lighting is a fundamental human need. People who can't simply flick a switch to light their homes lose many productive hours as soon as the sun sets. Nearly 1.5 billion people, around 22% of the global population, do not have access to electricity (Legros et al., 2009). For lighting, those without electricity must resort to lamps that are polluting, dangerous and provide low-quality light – and yet are more expensive than modern electric lighting. The very poor use flaming brands, candles and kerosene wick lamps, in contrast with the high-efficiency light bulbs accessible to those with electricity.
Lighting without electricity: the issues
Quality of light
People without access to electricity use fuels for lighting that provide fewer units of luminescence, or brightness (measured in lumens) for each watt of power consumed than electricity. A kerosene wick lamp or a candle provides just 11 lm, compared with 1,300 lm from a 100 W incandescent light bulb (Figure 1.1). As a result, those without access to electricity must endure light levels that are insufficient for safe work, study, or recreation.
A national rural lighting survey of 6,000 people in rural Peru found that candles and kerosene lamps provided barely enough light to walk around the house. Higher-income households without grid electricity used car batteries to power electric lights (Barnes, 2010a). Figure 1.2 shows the amount of light used each month by households in rural Peru.
Electric lamps are much more efficient than kerosene in converting energy into light. A 100 W incandescent lightbulb provides 12.8 kilolumens of light per kilowatt-hour compared with 0.1 kLm/KWh for a kerosene lamp. Fluorescent lights are four times more efficient again than incandescent bulbs.
A simple, small wick bottle lamp burns 10 mL of fuel hourly and gives out light equivalent to that from a small electric flashlight (torch) bulb – too dim for reading. Those who cannot access kerosene may even use burning brands (Figure 1.3).
The German development agency (GTZ) recommends 300 lm as a minimum 'entry level' of illumination required per household (Bazilian et al., 2010). This is needed for a minimum of 4 hours, preferably 6 hours. This can be achieved neither by candles nor kerosene wick lamps, suggesting they are not adequate sources of household lighting.
Pollution from lamps
There are few studies on the levels of indoor air pollution from kerosene lamps. A preliminary laboratory study in Guatemala (Schare and Smith, 1995) indicates an average particle emission of 540 mg/hour for wick lamps and 300 mg/hour for enclosed lamps. Compared to biomass stove emissions (2–20 g/hour), this emission rate is relatively low, but the most polluting lamps emit levels that compete with those from the cleaner types of biomass stoves. A study by Dustin Poppendieck and colleagues (2010) indicates that pollutants from the cheapest kerosene wick stoves have the smallest particle size, and are thus the most dangerous since they are taken more deeply into the lungs.
The dangers of lamps
Unguarded candles and wick lamps are intrinsically unsafe and lead to injury and deaths, particularly among women and children. In northern India, of the approximately 11,000 patients admitted for burn care during an 8-year period, 2% were injured from using flame lamps. In Sri Lanka, 91 of the 221 patients (41%) who were admitted to Batticaloa General Hospital with burns between July 1999 and June 2001 cited lighting as the cause. During 1998 and 1999, 151 of 487 patients (31%) aged 12 years and older who were admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo had non-intentional burns from kerosene lamps (Peck et al., 2008).
The cost of lighting
A study on sources of lighting has shown the large variation in cost for different forms of lighting (not including candles). Figure 1.4 compares kerosene lamps with other established lighting approaches, ranging from traditional, grid-connected incandescent lamps to portable solar lanterns using compact-fluorescent bulbs. The costs in this particular study range from US$0.003/1000 lm/m/hour for a grid-connected compact fluorescent lamp to $110/1000 lm/m/hour for flashlights, which are widely used as a supplement to kerosene lighting in the developing world (Mills, 2003).
This information is reinforced by a World Bank study in Guatemala which shows that those without access to electricity pay a substantial premium for their lighting (Table 1.1).
Technologies for taking action on lighting
The impact of electrification
Around 22% of the global population are without access to electricity. In Sub-Saharan Africa the percentage is nearly 40% overall and over 70% in rural areas – this leaves around 561 million people without access to electricity (Legros et al., 2009). The primary – and by far the major – use of electricity in rural households is lighting, television being the next most common (IEG, 2008).
A study by GTZ on the impacts of an off-grid electrification scheme in Rwanda found that the greatest improvement observed at the household level was in lighting. Eighty per cent of electrified households had switched completely from traditional lighting sources to modern electric ones (GTZ and Senternovem, 2009). The section by Guido Glania in Chapter 2 examines the impacts of access to off-grid electrification in greater detail.
Outside of the household, lighting plays a key role in increasing income through better street illumination, enabling businesses and household enterprises to stay open for longer and allowing people to move around more safely. An example is the company Aurore, in India (Box 1.1).
Alternatives to grid electricity
Projections indicate that by 2030 Africa will still have a non-electrified population of 698 million, compared to around 809 million people in Asia without electricity (Macharia et al., 2010). Rural populations suffer more than urban populations. Table 1.2 outlines the technologies that are now available. (Note that this depends on their affordability, as increasing income is essential to providing access to safer and cleaner lighting).
Indicators for adequate lighting
The UN Millennium Development project has set out targets for providing clean and efficient energy for reading light and for illuminating schools and health facilities (Table 1.3). The target for household lighting consumption is a minimum requirement, excluding a second light bulb and lighting needs for productive use and income generation.
In terms of a single minimum standard for adequate lighting at point of use, the PPEO supports the figure of 300 lm proposed by the GTZ Energizing Development project as a minimum lighting intensity for development benefits to be gained (Bazilian et al., 2010).
Achieving such a level in all houses would link to positive impacts on progress towards the MDGs, as outlined in Box 1.3.
Cooking and water heating
Nearly three billion people cook using biomass (such as wood and agri-residues) and coal, and nearly three quarters of these communities still cook on three-stone fires and rudimentary stoves (Figure 1.5). Around 80% of the foods we eat need to be cooked, yet even today only 2% of energy strategies in the least developed countries address cooking (Havet et al., 2009).
Only 27% of those who rely on solid fuels (biomass or coal) are estimated to use improved cookstoves. Access to these stoves is even more limited in least developed countries and Sub-Saharan Africa, where only 6% of those who use traditional biomass are taking advantage of such options (Legros et al., 2009).
Impacts of energy poverty on cooking and water heating
There are several socio-economic effects of cooking in circumstances of energy poverty. Women in particular spend many hours in drudgery, gathering fuel, cooking over inefficient stoves and cleaning soot-laden pots, clothes, walls and ceilings. In Chapter 2, Sheila Oparaocha highlights that women must be involved in decision-making at all levels if the needs of women living in poverty are to be properly addressed.
The opportunities lost to women who spend so many hours labouring for energy each week have been reported in studies worldwide. These studies suggest that 2–8 hours per day per family could be spent on more fulfilling activities with improved cooking facilities. Figure 1.6 shows average daily time devoted to collecting wood in various countries.
Note, however, that measuring the time spent on drudgery is problematic. For example, family groups will often go together to collect wood – and different studies take account of this in different ways. Practical Action studies in the Maasai communities in Kajiado, near Nairobi, Kenya, show the seasonal nature of fuel use as well as mother/child locations during a typical day. Other common factors that affect the time taken to gather fuel include the availability of seasonal residues for burning and the distance to the nearest town in which fuel can be purchased. Table 1.4 provides a snapshot of three typical households from among the 30 surveyed, showing when the woman and her youngest child were present in the kitchen with the fire alight.
Box 1.4 illustrates the links between nutritious food and the need for energy to cook it, with testimony from a family living in financial poverty in Kakuma, North West Kenya.
It is not just cooking that requires a source of heat: sterilising water and heating water for washing and personal hygiene extend the amount of time for which a stove or fire must be lit – with associated impacts on fuel use and smoke in the kitchen. Space heating (see the following section) can also increase fuel use substantially.
Stoves and fires have other uses in the home in addition to cooking food and boiling water, such as for cooking animal feed and for brewing beer and spirits (both for domestic consumption and to sell). Stoves are used by many women in other home-based enterprises such as cooking and selling street foods, which often form their main source of income. Institutional stoves are used in schools, hospitals and workplaces.
Health issues
For those with the lowest incomes, who cook and heat water using biomass fuels on rudimentary stoves, smoke is one of the largest causes of ill-health and death. Zimbabwe (McDaid, 2004) South Africa (Bembridge and Tarlton, 1990)
Indoor smoke from solid fuel is the cause of approximately 21% of deaths caused by lower respiratory infection worldwide, 35% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and about 3% of deaths from lung cancer. Of these, about 64% occur in low-income countries, especially in South-East Asia and Africa (WHO, 2009). Other health issues associated with indoor air pollution for which further evidence is emerging include increased cases of active tuberculosis, pulmonary disease, increased adverse pregnancy outcomes, low birthweight, and non-life threatening ailments such as cataract and eye discomfort and headache. In Chapter 2, Kirk Smith provides expert oversight into these major health implications.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also reports that globally there are over 300,000 deaths each year from fires alone, with even more deaths from scalds, electrical burns, and other forms of burns, for which global data are not available. Fire-related deaths alone rank among the 15 leading causes of death among children and young adults 5–29 years old.
Environmental issues
Cooking and deforestation
Forests are declining worldwide and although the rate of deforestation appears to have slowed, globally around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010, as compared to around 16 million hectares per year during the 1990s (Figure 1.8).
Up to the end of the last century, the majority of stove improvement programmes focused on a reduction in the amount of fuel used for cooking, and therefore in the fuel gathered by people for whom biomass was the only option (Barnes et al., 1994). Thus, fuel-efficient biomass stoves can help shift the balance from over-harvesting to increased tree growth. This fuel-saving criterion is still vital, particularly where much of the fuel is harvested non-sustainably. Locations where deforestation is a major issue include:
• around towns and cities, where increasing areas of deforestation result from felling trees for charcoal
• where displaced communities are residing, due to the increased number of people dependent on the same land, often leading to conflicts with local populations
• in areas affected by climate change where rains have failed, reducing the areas of forested land.
The Food and Agriculture Organization has calculated that at a global level, woodfuel collection accounts for nearly half of all removed wood (FAO, 2010; see Figure 1.9). This is a complex issue because charcoal, which is in high demand in urban areas, comes predominantly from felled trees, while the wood collected by rural women for their own use is mainly dead wood taken from the trees – as they wish to conserve the tree for the future. Much of this renewably gathered dead wood may not be included in the 'removed wood' data.
Climate change
Emissions from burning solid fuels in open areas and traditional stoves have significant global warming effects, due to incomplete combustion, and where biomass is sourced from non-renewable supplies. Globally, three billion people use biomass or coal-burning cookstoves, which are responsible for more health problems than any other category of energy use globally and are the most greenhouse-intensive fuel systems in the world, per unit energy delivered (Garrett et al, 2009).
Consequently, interventions that improve combustion efficiency and hence reduce emissions and exposure to pollutants can benefit health and mitigate climate change. This opens up possibilities for using carbon finance to help reduce the costs of accessing clean and efficient household energy services (Legros et al., 2009)
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Poor People's Energy Outlook 2010"
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Copyright © 2010 Practical Action.
Excerpted by permission of Practical Action Publishing.
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Table of Contents
Foreword,
Executive summary,
Introduction,
Chapter 1: People's experience of energy,
Lighting,
Cooking and water heating,
Space heating,
Cooling,
Information and communications,
Earning a living,
Summarising people's experience of energy,
Chapter 2: Practitioner perspectives,
Wood, the fuel that warms four times,
Financing for sustainable energy services,
Gender, energy and poverty,
Rural electrification with modern off-grid solutions,
Approaches to energy sector development,
Chapter 3: Framework for action,
References,