Restoring Balance: Bangladesh's Rural Energy Realities

by M. Asaduzzaman, Douglas F. Barnes, Shahidur R. Khandker

Overview

Rural energy’s importance to the Bangladesh economy cannot be underestimated, The problems rural people face in obtaining safe, clean, and reliable energy supplies are not minor inconveniences. People are cooking with biomass fuels including large amounts of leaves and grass that expose them harmful indoor air pollution. They light with kerosene or sometimes candles which give off a dim light that hampers studying and reading in the evening. Finally, rural productivity suffers because of lack of access to modern energy. However, the picture also is not all bleak. This study underscores how improved access to rural energy services can created multiple benefits for rural life—from income and labor productivity to education and women’s health. Recommended or enhancement of programs for improved stoves, rural electrification, renewable energy and greater access to commercial liquid fuels can significantly improve both the rural productivity and enhance the quality of life in rural Bangladesh.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821378977
Publisher:	World Bank Publications
Publication date:	03/29/2010
Series:	World Bank Working Papers , #181
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Acronyms and Abbreviations xiii

Units of Measure/Currency Equivalents xv

Energy Conversion Factors xvii

Executive Summary xix

1 Introduction 1

What Is the Knowledge Base? 2

Study Goal and Objectives 2

Principles for a Rural Energy Strategy 3

Study Method 4

Survey Instruments 5

Structure of This Report 9

2 Household Energy Use 11

General Consumption Patterns 11

Energy for Cooking 13

Energy for Lighting 15

Summing Up 16

3 Household Energy Demand 19

Expenditure Patterns 19

Cooking Energy: Biomass and Its Opportunity Cost 21

Lighting Energy 22

Asset Ownership Patterns 25

Demand for Other Energy: Quantitative Analysis 28

Summing Up 32

4 Household Gains from Energy Use 33

Biomass Cooking: From Traditional to Modern Energy 33

From Kerosene to Electric Lighting 39

From Manual to Mechanized Farming 42

Overall Income Gains: Moving Up the Energy Ladder 44

Summing Up 48

5 Energy Consumption and Rural Production 51

Enterprise Types and Distribution 51

Growth-Center Microenterprises 52

Home and Village Enterprises 59

Enterprise Energy Demand and Profitability: A Quantitative Analysis 62

Energy for Farming 64

Summing Up 67

6 Institutional Framework for Rural Energy Supply 69

Institutional Challenges and Potential 69

Building an Integrated Approach 76

7 Policy Recommendations 79

Problems and Potential of Biomass Energy 80

Rural Electrification and Rural Development 86

Toward Policies for Household Petroleum Fuels 89

Enhancing Rural Energy Projects, Policies, and Strategies 91

The Way Forward 93

Annexes

1 Selected Tables from the Household Survey 97

2 Statistical Models 125

3 Consumer's Surplus as a Measure of Welfare 133

References 137

Glossary 139

List of Special Reports 141

List of Boxes

1.1 What Are the Benefits of Rural Energy? 5

2.1 Modern Energy Benefits for Rural Families 16

List of Figures

ES.1 Energy Use and Expenditures in Rural Bangladesh, 2004 xxiii

1.1 Types and Sources of Energy Demand 4

1.2 Map of Survey Areas in Bangladesh 7

2.1 Rural Household Consumption by Source (percent energy consumption) 14

3.1 Energy Expenditure Distribution by Energy Source (percent expenditure) 20

3.2 Household Biomass Collection Time by Income Quintile (thousands of Tk per year) 22