Promoting the use of solar energy

As indicated in our last newsletter, we have been promoting the use of solar-powered lighting devices.  We are currently involved in the installation of solar-powered street-lamps with the additional advantage of newly-designed fixtures consisting of light emitting diodes (LEDs). While the use of solar energy results in direct conservation of electricity, the LED-based devices also result in energy saving, as they are more efficacious: a 27 W fixture emits as much light as (i.e. luminous equivalent of) a 40 W fluorescent tube.  Further, the relatively long durability of LEDs, as compared with the fluorescent options, reduces the cost and effort of replacement.  Installation is taking place for street-lighting at a new residential colony.  More details will be provided in the following newsletter.




Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD), the journal of the International Energy Initiative

Volume XII, No.4 of IEI’s quarterly journal Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been published this month.  It is a Special Issue on access to clean energy for the urban and peri-urban poor.  While better (cleaner and more efficient) forms of energy are more easily available in urban areas, these are often not “accessible” to the economically-disadvantaged because of their inability to pay the prices of higher quality services and/or their insecure housing.  The articles in this issue are primarily based on case-studies of poor areas of specific cities: Bangkok and Khon Kaen (Thailand), Cape Town (South Africa), Dakar (Sénégal), Nairobi (Kenya), Delhi (India), and Buenos Aires (Argentina).  While the circumstances vary from city to city, certain policy recommendations appear to be widespread, the most important of which is legalising housing.  Another policy would be to subsidise the initial cost of electricity, LPG, or natural gas connection, rather than the energy use, as it would also encourage conservation.  Further, subsidies should be targeted at poorer households rather than uniformly applied to all households.  The studies were commissioned by the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD). [Click here for the abstracts].