Energy is an important development
indicator, which provides vital inputs for survival and economic development. Energy supply and
consumption is still in a traditional state in Nepal. At present, renewable energy generation capability of the country is
still significantly very low due to technological and economical barriers. But
the average efficiency of the renewable energy technologies is good in
performance and also environmentally safe. Nepal is fully dependent on
traditional energy sources such as biomass. For commercial purpose the country
is reliant on imported fossil fuels like petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG for
running vehicles, stationary engines, boilers, cooking, lighting etc. Heavy
dependence for energy on biomass resources has accelerated the depletion of
natural resources and contributed to the degradation of natural
environment. The country spends about 40
per cent of it’s foreign currency reserve on the import of petroleum products.
On the other hand, the country’s vast resource of renewable hydropower energy
remains virtually unexploited.
Nepal needs to harness its vast
hydropower potential and reduce its dependence on biomass
in order to check the further
degradation of the environment and reduce country’s
dependence on fossil fuel based
energy. The power so generated can be used for setting up
clean energy based industries which
will significantly contribute to the economic development of the country.
The Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) in Nepal was 90.95 in
2009, according to a World Bank report, published in 2010. The Electric power
consumption (kWh per capita) in Nepal was reported at 77.01 in 2008, according
to the World Bank. Electric power consumption measures the production of power
plants and combined heat and power plants less transmission, distribution, and
transformation losses and own use by heat and power plants.This article includes a historical data chart, news and
forecats for Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) in Nepal. Nepal is one
of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Almost one-quarter
of its population lives below the poverty line. Agriculture is the main source
of revenue for three-fourths of Nepalese and accounts for one-third of GDP.
Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural products,
including pulses, jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. In recent year’s
progress has been made in exploiting Nepal's natural resources, tourism and hydroelectricity.
The main Renewable energy sources In Nepal are Hydropower , wind ,
solar, biomass and geothermal energy source.
Hydropower:
Nepal is the
world’s second largest rich in water. The geography gives the maximum
advantages to install the clean energy source. The total capacity of hydropower
is in Nepal is about Nepal has a huge hydropower
potential. In fact, the perennial nature of Nepali rivers and the steep
gradient of the country's topography provide ideal conditions for the
development of some of the world's largest hydroelectric projects in Nepal.
Current estimates are that Nepal has approximately 40,000 MW of economically
feasible hydropower potential. However, the present situation is that Nepal has
developed only approximately 600 MW of hydropower. Therefore, bulk of the
economically feasible generation has not been realized yet. Besides, the
multipurpose, secondary and tertiary benefits have not been realized from the
development of its rivers.
Although
bestowed with tremendous hydropower resources, only about 40% of Nepal's
population has access to electricity. Most of the power plants in Nepal are
run-of-river type with energy available in excess of the in-country demand
during the monsoon season and deficit during the dry season.
Nepal's
electricity generation is dominated by hydropower, though in the entire
scenario of energy use of the country, the electricity is a tiny fraction, only
1% energy need is fulfilled by electricity. The bulk of the energy need is
dominated by fuel wood (68%), agricultural waste (15%), animal dung (8%) and
imported fossil fuel (8%). The other fact is that only about 40% of Nepal's
population has access to electricity. With this scenario and having immense
potential of hydropower development, it is important for Nepal to increase its
energy dependency on electricity with hydropower development. This contributes
to deforestation, soil erosion and depletion, and increased flooding downstream
in the Ganges plain. Shortage of wood also pushes farmers to burn animal dung,
which is needed for agriculture. Not only this, the development of hydropower
will help to achieve the millennium development goals with protecting
environment, increasing literacy, improving health of children and women with
better energy. Growing environmental degradation adds a sense of urgency.
Energy Consumption in Nepal
The electricity
demand in Nepal is increasing by about 7-9% per year. About 40 % of population
in Nepal has access to electricity through the grid and off grid system.
Nepal's Tenth Five Year Plan (2002– 2007) aims to extend the electrification
within country and export to India for mutual benefit. The new Hydropower
Policy 2001 seeks to promote private sector investment in the sector of
hydropower development and aims to expand the electrification within the
country and export.
The hydropower
system in Nepal is dominated by run-of-river Projects. There is only one
seasonal storage project in the system. There is shortage of power during
winter and spill during wet season. The load factor is quite low as the
majority of the consumption is dominated by household use. This imbalance has
clearly shown the need for storage projects, and hence, cooperation between the
two neighboring countries is essential for the best use of the hydro resource
for mutual benefit.
The system loss
is one of the major issues to be addressed to improve the power system which
accounts to be 25 % including technical and non-technical losses like
pilferage.
The Importance
of hydropower is for following reason
Production of
energy per unit is very cheap.
For long time
production ie the life time of hydropower is high compare to other energy
source.
It is clean
energy source ie the continuous supply of energy is for longe time.
It is
completely eco-friendly .
The reduction of emission of harmful gas .
Solar energy :
As per an
estimate by WECS (1995), 78% of the land area of Nepal lies in high potential
solar
insolation areas. The average solar radiation varies from 3.6 – 6.2 kWh/m /day,
and the
sun shines for
about 300 days in a year. The development of solar energy technology is thus
reasonably favorable in many parts of the country. Solar energy is
traditionally used for
drying crops,
clothes, fuel wood crop residues etc. The technological intervention started
only
in the sixties
with the production of domestic solar water heaters. The use of solar water
heaters are mainly in the urban centers and in the trekking route. Till
2005, there are around
61,000 solar
heaters installed in the country.
Open air drying
is a traditional drying method in Nepal for storage of agricultural products
such as paddy, wheat, maize, fruits, vegetable and herbal medicines.
Besides natural sun
drying, cabinet
type, rack type and tunnel type solar dryers are also used in some places in
Nepal. A few
manufacturers and NGOs have attempted to promote a few designs of solar
dryers in the country. A modified rack type solar dryer developed by
RECAST is also used
for drying
fruits and vegetables. The government has been trying to encourage the use of
solar dryers by
providing subsidies. A 50% subsidy on
the cost of solar dryer was announced
by AEPC in
1998.
Development of
solar cookers in Nepal started in 1997 with the parabolic cooker brought in
by RECAST.
Later on RECAST developed box type solar cookers locally. A number of
demonstrations
and training sessions were conducted on these devices and some cookers
were
distributed. The government also provides an amount Rs. 3500/- as subsidy for a
parabolic solar
cooker which cost Rs. 10,000/- in the present market price.
The use of
solar photovoltaic is increasing rapidly in the country after the provision of
subsidy by the
Government of Nepal. This technology for electricity generation has been
widely used for
in households, telecommunications, airports etc. There are around 30
registered
solar PV companies operating for the dissemination of SHS with hundreds of
branch offices
in the various district and rural areas of Nepal. Till 2005, 90,172 units of
SHS
WIND:
workshops are
involved in the fabrication of wind pumps for irrigation purposes.
Wind is still
unharnessed energy resource in Nepal. Due to its diverse topography and the
consequent
variation in the meteorological conditions, it is difficult to generalize wind
conditions in
the country. Although there are some indications of some potential of wind
energy and geothermal energy, their magnitude as well as feasibility is
not yet established. A
30 kW wind
power generator was installed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in
Kagbeni,
Mustang, but the unit was heavily damaged by high winds during operation. At
present, NEA is
implementing a wind power development project and a few private
workshops are
involved in the fabrication of wind pumps for irrigation purposes.
Wind is still
unharnessed energy resource in Nepal. Due to its diverse topography and the
consequent
variation in the meteorological conditions, it is difficult to generalize wind
conditions in
the country. Although there are some indications of some potential of wind
energy and geothermal energy, their magnitude as well as feasibility is
not yet established. A
30 kW wind
power generator was installed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in
Kagbeni,
Mustang, but the unit was heavily damaged by high winds during operation. At
present, NEA is
implementing a wind power development project and a few private
Wind is still
unharnessed energy resource in Nepal. Due to its diverse topography and the
consequent
variation in the meteorological conditions, it is difficult to generalize wind
conditions in
the country. Although there are some indications of some potential of wind
energy and geothermal energy, their magnitude as well as feasibility is
not yet established. A
30 kW wind
power generator was installed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in
Kagbeni,
Mustang, but the unit was heavily damaged by high winds during operation. At
present, NEA is
implementing a wind power development project and a few private
workshops are
involved in the fabrication of wind pumps for irrigation purposes.
scale implementation as a decentralized source of energy. While the gas
provides clean
energy for
cooking, heating, lighting and even running engines, the effluent is used as a
wet
or sun dried
fertilizer.
The
potentiality of producing biogas is about 1.9 million plants. The Biogas Sector
Partnership-Nepal
(BSP/N) under the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and with
the cooperation
from various donors like SNV and KfW is promoting the installation of
biogas plant in
various part of the country. There are about 2,000,000 biogas plants installed
in various
districts of Nepal. According to BSP-Nepal, 72 private biogas companies and 16
biogas
appliances manufacturing workshops have been developed in the country for the
effective dissemination of this technology in Nepal. BSP-N further
states that 96% of the
constructed
biogas plants are in operation and the biogas programme is developed as the
first
CDM project in Nepal. As per the subsidy policy of the government,
following are the
financial
subsidy provided by the government for the construction of biogas plant
depending
upon the
remoteness of the district.
Geothermal Energy :
We
live between two great sources of energy, the hot rocks beneath the surface of
the earth and the sun in the sky. Our ancestors knew the value of geothermal
energy; they bathed and coke in hot springs. Today we have recognized that
this resource has potential for much broader application.
The
core of the earth is very hot and it is possible to make use of this geothermal
energy (in Greek it means heat from the earth). These are areas where there are
volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers, and methane under the water in the oceans
and seas. In some countries, such as in the USA water is pumped from
underground hot water deposits and used to heat people’s houses.
The
utilization of geothermal energy for the production of electricity dates back
to the early part of the twentieth century. For 50 years the generation of
electricity from geothermal energy was confined to Italy and interest in this
technology was slow to spread elsewhere. In 1943 the use of geothermal hot
water was pioneered in Iceland.
In
India, Northwestern Himalayas and the western coast are considered geothermal
areas. The Geological Survey of India has already identified more than 350 hot
spring sites, which can be explored as areas to tap geothermal energy.
Satellites like the IRS-1 have played an important role, through infrared
photographs of the ground, in locating geothermal areas. The Puga valley in the
Ladakh region has the most promising geothermal field. An experimental 1-kW
generator is already in operation in this area. It is being used mainly for
poultry farming, mushroom cultivation, and pashmina-wool processing, all of
which need higher temperature.
Here
is a data of about Nepal energy production in renewable and nonrenewable energy
source.
In 2008, Nepal generated 3.05 billion kilowatthours of
electricity from an installed capacity base of 717 megawatts.
The top 2 energy sources overall were Hydroelectricity
(92.05% of total capacity) and Conventional Thermal (7.95%).92.05% of the
installed capacity base comprised of renewable energy sources, the largest
being Hyd
roelectricity at 660 megawatts.Primary Energy In 2008, Nepal
produced 0.03 quadrillion BTUs (QBTUs) of primary energy, an increase of 0
QBTUs over the prior year and a compound growth rate of 4.65% over a 5 year
period. Primary energy consumption meanwhile increased by 3.37% over the prior
year to 0.08 QBTUs, equating to 2.63 million BTUs per capita which places Nepal
into the 91st percentile of countries worldwide for per capita primary energy
consumption.
Total Electricity
Nepal’s total electricity capacity has increased on an annual compound
basis by 4.93% over the last 20 years to 717 megawatts (MW) in 2008. In the
last year, the total installed capacity base increased by 100 megawatts
(+16.21%) with the largest source of new capacity being Hydroelectricity (+100
megawatts).
Total renewable energy capacity accounts for 92.05% of this
total installed capacity base whilst renewable energy sources excluding
hydropower account for 0%.
Hydroelectricity experienced the fastest capacity growth rate
(17.86%) in the last year whilst Hydroelectricity Energy added the most
capacity in the last 5 years, reaching 660 MW in 2008.
Total electricity generation meanwhile climbed 2.62% over the
last year to 3.05 billion kilowatthours (bn kWh) in 2008 with the largest
source for electricity generation being Hydroelectricity (99.67% of total net
generation).
Conventional sources including conventional thermal (coal,
petroleum, gas), nuclear power and hydro pumped storage accounted for 0.33% of
total electricity generated, down from 0.54% 5 years previously.
In 2009, Nepal had a zero balance net import requirement.
There were no exports of electricity.
Conventional Energy
Conventional Energy sources represented 7.95% of total
installed capacity in Nepal in 2008, a decrease of -1.07 percentage points over
a 5 year period.
Conventional thermal energy had an installed capacity
base of 57 MW in 2008, a change of 0 MW over the previous year and a 0% change
on a compound basis over a 5 year period. Conventional thermal energy has seen
its share of total installed capacity decrease from 9.02% in 2004 to 7.95% in
2008. Conventional Thermal Energy generated 0.01 billion kilowatthours of
electricity in 2008, equating to 0.18 billion kilowatthours of electricity per
million kilowatts of capacity.
Nuclear energy does not currently feature in Nepal.
Hydroelectric pumped storage energy provided 0 MW of
capacity.
Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy sources represented 92.05% of total
installed capacity in Nepal in 2008, an increase of 1.07 percentage points over
a 5 year period.
100 MW of capacity was added since 2007 and 0 MW were
retired. Hydroelectricity Energy grew the most, adding 100 MW of capacity.
This renewable energy capacity generated 3.04 billion
kilowatthours of electricity (99.67% of the total), primarily from Hydroelectricity
(100% of the 3.04 bn kWh generated).
Biomass and Waste Energy
As of 2008, there was no Biomass and Waste Energy capacity in
Nepal.
Geothermal Energy
As of 2008, there was no Geothermal Energy capacity in Nepal.
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity had an installed capacity base of 660 MW in
2008, a change of 100 MW over the previous year. It's share of total installed
capacity increased from 90.98% in 2004 to 92.05% in 2008 and it's share of
renewable installed capacity remained unchanged at 100% in 2008.
Hydroelectricity generated 3.04 billion kilowatthours of
electricity in 2008, equating to 99.67% of the total electricity generated.
This is equivalent to 4.61 billion kilowatthours of electricity per million
kilowatts of capacity, which was the highest ratio amongst renewable energy
sources.
Nepal has 0.24% of the total regional capacity for
Hydroelectricity and ranks at #83 in the world for Hydroelectricity installed
capacity.
Solar, Tide & Wave Energy
As of 2008, there was no Solar Energy capacity in Nepal.
Wind Energy
As of 2008, there was no Wind Energy capacity in Nepal.
Biofuels
As of 2009, there was no biofuels production in Nepal.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
In 2008, total carbon dioxide emissions in Nepal reached 3.3
million Metric Tonnes (mn MT), a compound increase of 3.37% over a 5 year
period. Nepal's total represented 0.03% of total regional emissions and 0.01%
of total world emissions.
On a per capita basis meanwhile, Nepal ranked at #193
worldwide, with per capita emissions increasing on 2007 by 0 metric tonnes to
0.12 metric tonnes.
Carbon & Energy Intensity
In 2008, Nepal had a Carbon Intensity (@ Purchasing Power
Parity) of 0.063 CO2 MT/$ 000, which represented a -4.66% decrease over the
prior year and a 0.4% decrease on a 5 year compound basis.
Energy intensity meanwhile reached 1471.3 BTUs per US Dollar
of GDP (@ Purchasing Power Parity), a -1.53% decrease on the prior year and a
compound annual 1.15% growth on a 5 year basis.
On a global basis, Nepal ranked at #183 for Carbon Intensity
and at #172 for Energy Intensity.
The
possibility on fossil fuels and natural gas is not availabel in nepal. The most
of the money goes outside from the country in importing the oils and gas. We
are totally depend on india. Recently we faces the fuels shoratge and still the
cooking gas shortage problem is here. So the questions arises are we safe for
future ? . The answer is of course not because we are facing that kind of
problem not for yesterday but for many years.
The
renewable energy is a clean source of energy for the devlopment of Nepal. It is
a very feasible energy source and broaldy available in nature. The power
production by renewable energy is comparitively cheaper then the non renewable
energy source. The perunit cost of energy is less . This is not only conveninet
but also the long lasting and better secure other then energy source.
Today
the whole world is suffering from carbon gas emission and the temprature rise
of earth which directy effects the whole system of earth. These arises the
climatic change of earth, global temp rise and melting of glaciers and hilly
region. Nepal is the fourth affective country in this world in climatic change.
So the renewable energy source is better one because we are not only using it
but also reducing the temp rise of earth.
The
another advantages for Nepal is by using the renewable energy source we can
reduce the carbon emmision and we can carbon trade in other developed countrise
and by selling it we can earn the money from other countires without investing
any money just like buy 1 get 1 free. We are using renewable energy source and
reducing carbon emmission and we are earning money withoout exporting anything.
The
renewable energy also help the equall development of Nepal. The rural area are
still not getting the electrcial power. The installment of renewable energy is
easy and fast like solar, wind (if possible)and biogas and the parallel
devlopment will be easy and fast.
The
sustainable devlopemnt is possible by using renewable source. It is a long life
power source and it's never finish like fossils fuels and gas so the continuity
is there and high sustainbility .
So at last The renewable energy source
is very advantages for nepal for the security, sustainbility, fast and parrel
devlopment, for independent and for better lifestyle of the people .
