Er. Kabir D. Rajbhandari

                                                                                                        SAPPROS – Nepal

INTRODUCTION

Nepal, sandwiched between China (in the north) and India (in the south) is a small landlocked country situated in a roughly east – west direction with a unique feature in its landforms. The fragile geological and mountainous topography and peculiar variation in altitudes of this Himalayan kingdom has fostered a rich diversity causing rivers to flow with huge potential being the main.

The sufficient infrastructural base should be prepared for the development of any nation either in the field of economy or in the field of physical infrastructure or even in the field of science and technology. But, the lack of sufficiency in such infrastructural base is a more acute constraint in the context of Nepal and hence, it is listed among the least developed countries in the world. Thus, for the advancement and to lay a foundation for the upliftment of the of the society and the country as a whole, the responsibilities have to be taken to make access to the informations and technologies so as to give a new momentum in dimensioning the development aspects of the society and the country as a whole. Being one of the least developed countries, Nepal has yet to explore many sustainable infrastructure development activities for the elimination of poverty.

CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs and aspirations of present without compromising the ability of future to meet their own needs – (WECD). This definition has provided the conceptual underpinning necessary for the complex problems of this new paradigm of development. Besides, this definition tries to link the needs with the renewable and transferable natural resources into physical material that serves our needs i.e. this necessitates us to identify and use ways and means of resource utilization without depleting. But this is possible only if those are renewable. Energy is not an exception to this, which is a vital component.

The present major resources of Nepal are its water resource, the potential of which is theoretically a source of considerable economic strength. Hence, it should be the focus of development efforts in the country giving special emphasis for strengthening the territorial integrity accompanying with appropriate protective measures which is no doubt essential for various economic sectors. Thus, it is not only the availability but also affordability which will become important issue for a poor economy. Hence, the developments are only sustainable if the technology bears low cost and are appropriate or carry out in local level as per their needs.

TECHNOLOGY OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

The energy that does not deplete but can be regenerated is the renewable energy, such as solar, wind, water resources, biomass resources etc. The renewable energy made available through established sources and technology is considered as non-conventional one, if otherwise, conventional. Strictly speaking, the forms of renewable energy are environmentally benign with very little or no adverse environmental impacts and are bound to become economically viable.

So far today in Nepal, the advancement in the technology relating to renewable energy is not fully satisfactory; however, the trend of development in this aspect is quite appreciable. Technically and implementation wise, biogas digesters, hydropower (excluding large scale), solar water heaters, etc. are the most proven renewable energy technology in Nepal. Besides solar photo-voltaic have also been implemented with mixed degree of success. However, wind energy met with the complete failure in Nepal. Unfortunately, there are not any more significant projects on other alternate renewable energy technologies in Nepal.

Of course Nepal had her large theoretical power potential of 83,000 MW and techno-economically feasible potential is 25,000 MW. Even though the country has failed to realize the benefit and tap the potential due to various reasons including lack of capital market and technical resources plus technical advancement. Alternative to these hydropower potential resource energy is fuel wood from forest which has been plagued with gross miss management in past for decades and exploited regardless of its regenerative capacity thereby leading to tragic environmental degradation and various natural calamities. So, it can be said without any shadow of doubt that the careful and cautious use of renewable energy can play a much needed role as a catalyst in the development and advancement on country by providing modern form of energy.

The forms of technology of non-conventional renewable energy in Nepal can be attributed as follows:

BIOMASS:

A. BIOFUEL:

About 2 million hectare of landforms of Nepal are covered by forest and out of which 42% is situated in Southern plain (tarai) region whereas 58% of the total forest coverage is located in Northern hilly regions. As per demographic census, only 33% of the Total population of the county lives in the Southern Tarai whereas 67% of the total population lives in the Northern hilly regions. The annual yield of the forest has been estimated to 7.2 million cubic meter including both timber and fuel wood species whereas the total growing stock has been estimated as 53 million cubic mete including both approachable and remote forest.

B. BIOGAS:

Biogas development in Nepal has centers to-date on Gober Gas plants utilizing animal dung including other organic material. The result of biogas program that had been launched in the past show satisfactory as well as appreciable results. The number of biogas installed in the country has already exceeded 13,000 and most of them are operating well. This is because such plants have a capacity near about 1 cu. m. per day which is nearly sufficient for cooking and lighting requirements of about 7 persons. Apart from local technology provides other benefits like – regulation of nutrients to the soil. And increase on the agricultural productivity.

The estimated potential for family size biogas plants in Nepal is about 200,000. It was planned to install 30,000 biogas plants during the English Five Year Plan period. The biogas development can make a meaningful contribution to increase agricultural output.

SOLAR:-

Nepal gets about 300 sunny days and global insulation is favorable in many locations for the exploitation of this energy. Though the average solar radiations are not equal in all parts of Nepal, solar energy potential is fairly high. It is estimated that Nepal has a solar potential of 26000 Mw but only 0.13 Mw of solar power has been developed. Apart from the use of solar photo-voltaic in remote communications, solar photo-voltaic based rural electrifications, solar carried out by NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority) in three different locations, whose total installed peak power exceeds 100 Kw. However, this means of electrification is many more times costly and expensive than micro hydropower electrification. Although exact data is not available regarding numbers of solar heaters installed by individuals, the popularity gained by this technology of renewable energy of cooking, crop drying, water distilling etc. can never be miscalculated. Yet, the utilization of solar energy are not in use in domestic energy supplies. This technology needs to be modified to make domestically viable.

WIND:

In the Northern belt (region) of Nepal wind energy is available, but, the exact potential is yet to be estimated. Wind power, of course, is a promising unconventional source of power. It is merely air in motion, set up and continually regenerated by small fraction of isolation reaction the outer atmosphere. It is estimated that nature is generating 1.67 X 10¹⁵ Kwh annually but lonely a small fraction of this can be harnessed for use in the other forms. Wind power generation was installed by NEA in Northern region (Kagbeni, Mustang), but met with a complete failure due to equipment breakdown. Further, efforts are being made to re-operate the wind generator. It is reported that the potential it’s to generate wind energy in Mustang is reported at about 200 Mw. 

IMPROVED:

MICRO-HYDROPOWER:

However, till today, only 330 MW of hydropower potentiality has been installed. Besides NEA, there are eight independent companies in Nepal capable of building and installing micro hydropower schemes upto 1,500 kW per year. Some 310 micro-hydro schemes have been installed by entrepreneurs and communities throughout Nepal, 100 of which are being used for the generation of electricity.

Local participation of the villagers in investment and other aspects has been envisaged. Overall participation scenario showed that quite a number of projects are very simple for small village and they are all taken up for the construction by villagers for economic reasons. But, they are not the cheapest solutions. Due to the existence of numerous small rivulets in hilly regions of rural Nepal, there is a high scope of generating economical hydropower with a mobilization of the community in financial, physical and technical terms.

OTHER:-

Apart from the alternate technology described above, their also exist other alternate technologies that has potential in the country which are not tried yet. Biomass gasifiers, geothermal, drought animal power are among ….. if then.

CONCLUSION

From the past experiences; it is evident that the incredible natural resoles of non-polluting, renewable energy in Nepal can be utilized to provide sustainable infrastructure in rural and this is a basic step for the country’s development as a whole. Since peaking power usually represents the most expensive form of the conventional electricity generation, the availability of sustainable alternate renewable energy resources should be coincident with the peak load.

Visualizing the past experiences in terms of development and new thrust for development of alternate energy in Nepal, it is evident that this vital sector will attract adequate attention at the planning as well as implementing level.

The successful implementation of such sustainable alternate energy system should be accelerated by the continuous support of the government, non-government as well as private and foreign donor sectors by undertaking a more comprehensive energy policy and by adequate monitoring and evaluation by appropriate agency. Besides, private sectors should also be encouraged in manufacturing and distribution of systems by providing government subsidies, low interest loan and government tax exemption for alternate energy system components.

Nepal has to use its own natural renewable resources such as forest, water resources complemented by solar, wind and biomass energy resources in a sustainable manner. Only then it is possible to achieve long awaited development of the country by wise exploitation of the conventional and non-conventional forms of renewable energies.

Therefore, the present need and challenge is in the application of modern technology, innovation and optimization techniques to improve the economic viability and long term reliability of this type of alternate renewable energy resources for the sustainable development of the rural areas and the country as a whole. To achieve this goal, lots of further researches on other sources of renewable energy should be carried out and implemented possible and feasible.

Courtesy: Publication of NESS - "TECHNOLOGY" - A Journal of Engineering, Vol. 7, May 1998