The cost of photovoltaic (PV) systems continues to fall. At the same time, experience is being rapidly gained in their practical use in the developing world. It is now clear they are going to play an increasing part in the provision of electrificationcal services in the rural and peri-urban areas of many developing countries. This report examines the rural energy context within which PV programs must fit. The first chapter reviews the present position of PV technology and briefly describes the kits and systems commercially available for use in the rural areas of the developing world. The second chapter examines the rural energy background, describing how people manage to meet their energy needs across the huge areas of the developing world that remain untouched by conventional rural electrificationfication programs. The third chpater looks at conventional rural electrification programs, their methods and their inevitably limited scope. The fourth chapter looks at the potential niches for PVs, and how they compare in cost and level of service with their competition. A brief review of PV experience to date and the lessons learned is given in the fifth chapter, and the final chapter looks at the role of governments and funding agencies.

Photovoltaic Applications in Rural Areas of the Developing World

This report synthesizes the experience
 of micro hydro developments in Sri Lanka, Peru, Nepal,
 Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. It attempts to draw out the Best
 Practice from this experience. Micro hydro plants are
 defined as having a capacity of between 10 kW and 200 kW.
 The report provides a rigorous comparative microeconomic
 analysis of the cost and financial returns of a sample of
 plants across the five countries. It draws out the
 macroeconomic, financial, and other institutional
 arrangements that appear important to the scaling-up of
 micro hydro investments. Summaries of the microeconomic
 analysis of the case studies of individual micro hyro plants
 are included in the annex to this synthesis report. The
 lessons for "Best Practice" are summarized in
 Section 5.

/pdf/best-practices-for-sustainable-development-of-micro-hydro-1c7ji4yau6.pdf

Best practices for sustainable development of micro hydro power in developing countries

Key factors for the success of village hydro-electric programmes

/pdf/low-cost-electricity-installation-n2tatb7agg.pdf

Low cost electricity installation

OF DISSERTATION .................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................ V PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ X LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................................................XVII LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... XX CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 THE RESEARCH QUESTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 Energy consuming behaviors of households ...................................................................................................... 2 Poverty alleviation and development policies .................................................................................................... 3 Other energy sources in the household mix ....................................................................................................... 4 Energy consuming appliances ............................................................................................................................ 6 The price of electricity supply ............................................................................................................................. 8 THE CHALLENGE .............................................................................................................................................. 9 THEORETICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION ................................................................................................................... 11 The household theoretical model demand for domestic energy ................................................................... 12 The grid model – supply of domestic electricity ............................................................................................... 18 DATA AND METHODS ..................................................................................................................................... 20 REPORT STRUCTURE........................................................................................................................................ 22 CONTRIBUTIONS ............................................................................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 26

Zambia

Papers

Rural Electrification in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe