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      Off-Grid Solar Electrification Sustainability Assessment: A Case Study of Swat

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      Policy Perspectives
      Pluto Journals
      Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Sustainability, Energy Transition, Swat
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            Abstract

            Access to energy is crucial not only for the well-being of people but also for the socioeconomic development of a region. Today, 46.3 million people in Pakistan lack access to the grid whereas those connected have unreliable and interrupted access to energy supply. However, in the wake of prolonged power outages in rural areas accompanied by coincidental spread of awareness on solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, an interesting shift in terms of energy transition is underway. This study focuses on these undocumented changes taking place in the district of Swat. As success and optimality of any system can be best gauged through user's perception, the study attempts at assessing both the sustainability of the installed off-grid solar systems as well as barriers in their diffusion at a larger scale. Where on one hand the findings reveal strong social acceptance for the solar PV technology among users, on the other hand the study observes limited dependence on the technology where reliance on the conventional energy is still very prevalent for heavy load appliances during running electricity hours. Amongst the non-PV users, a strong desire for instalment of PV technology exists. Nevertheless, lack of government support and economic barriers remain major impediments in its adoption. The findings hence underscore significance of supportive policies for augmenting the momentum toward a sustainable energy transition.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.2307/j50009730
            polipers
            Policy Perspectives
            Pluto Journals
            1812-1829
            1812-7347
            1 January 2019
            : 16
            : 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/polipers.16.issue-2 )
            : 127-142
            Affiliations
            [* ]Researcher, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad, Pakistan.
            [** ]PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad, Pakistan.
            Article
            polipers.16.2.0127
            10.13169/polipers.16.2.0127
            612cf31f-3d3e-4b00-95a1-ce40ec319ce0
            © 2019, Institute of Policy Studies

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Custom metadata
            eng

            Education,Religious studies & Theology,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,Economics
            Solar Energy,Renewable Energy,Energy Transition,Sustainability,Swat

            Footnotes

            1. World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, report (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/152/WCED_v17_doc149.pdf?sequence=1.

            2. Toby Couture, Renewables in Cities: 2019 Global Status Report-Preliminary Findings (Paris: REN21 Secretariat, 2019), https://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/190626_REC-2019-GSR_Preliminary_Findings_web.pdf.

            3. World Bank, Pakistan Off-Grid Lighting Consumer Perception: Study Overview, report 112020 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group, 2017), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/865301486382674587/Pakistan-off-grid-lighting-consumer-perceptions-study-overview.

            4. Electricity Access Database 2019, s.v. “electricity,” accessed November 29, 2019, https://www.iea.org/sdg/electricity/.

            5. Muhammad Shahid Khalil, Nasim A. Khan and Irfan Afzal Mirza, “Renewable Energy in Pakistan: Status and Trends” (paper, Ministry of Energy, Power Division, Government of Pakistan, 2014), http://www.mowp.gov.pk/mowp/userfiles1/file/uploads/publications/repk.pdf.

            6. Nicola Ursina Blum, “Fostering Rural Electrification: The Case of Renewable Energy-Based Village Grids in South East Asia” (PhD diss., Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, 2013), https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-009974640.

            7. Jean-Baptiste Lesourd, “Solar Photovoltaic Systems: The Economics of a Renewable Energy Resource,” Environmental Modelling & Software 16, no. 2 (2001): 147-156, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-8152(00)00078-5.

            8. Swat is positioned in Khyber Pakhtunkwa—the northwestern province of Pakistan.

            9. Intikhab Amir, “Solar Technology Brightens Swatis' Lives,” Dawn, January 6, 2012, https://www.dawn.com/news/686014/solar-technology-brightens-swatis-lives.

            10. Asad Zia, “Solar Panels Installed in 405 Schools across K-P,” Express Tribune, April 15, 2016, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1084629/adding-facilities-solar-panels-installed-in-405-schools-across-k-p/.

            11. Ninad Mutatkar, “Sustainability Assessment of Decentralised Solar Projects: Introducing a Multi-Criteria Approach” (Masters diss., School of Industrial Engineering and Management, KTH, Stockholm, 2017), http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1117450&dswid=4196.

            12. Elisabeth Ilskog and Björn Kjellström, “And Then They Lived Sustainably Ever After?—Assessment of Rural Electrification Cases by Means of Indicators,” Energy Policy 36, no. 7 (2008): 2674-2684, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.03.022.

            13. Toby Couture, Setu Pelz, Catherina Cader and Philipp Blechinger. “Off-Grid Prosumers: Electrifying the Next Billion with PAYGO Solar,” in Consumer, Prosumer, Prosumager (Cambridge: Academic Press, 2019), 311–29, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-816835-6.00014-0.

            14. Ibid.

            15. There can be other minor maintenance costs such as purchasing or replacing of DC bulbs or fans, which this study has not taken into account.

            16. The table gives a rough idea on the amount of repairing/replacement cost of batteries—a regular maintenance cost incurred by the PV system users.

            17. Jed J. Cohen, Johannes Reichl, and Michael Schmidthaler, “Re-Focussing Research Efforts on the Public Acceptance of Energy Infrastructure: A Critical Review,” Energy 76, no. 1 (2014): 4-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.12.056.

            18. Shahidur R. Khandker, Hussain A. Samad, Rubaba Ali and Douglas F. Barnes, “Who Benefits most from Rural Electrification? Evidence in India,” The Energy Journal 35, no. 2 (2014): 75-96, http://dx.doi.org/10.5547/01956574.35.2.4.

            19. Vilja Varho, “Environmental Impact of Photovoltaic Electrification in Rural Areas,” Energy & Environment 13, no. 1 (2002): 81-104, https://doi.org/10.1260/0958305021501092.

            20. Fred Beck and Eric Martinot, s.v. “Renewable Energy Policies and Barriers,” Encyclopedia of Energy (Cambridge: Academic Press, 2004); Dan Arvizu, Palani Balaya, Luisa F. Cabeza, K.G. Terry Hollands, Arnulf Jäger-Waldau, Michio Kondo, Charles Konseibo, Valentin Meleshko, Wesley Stein, Yutaka Tamaura, Honghua Xu and Roberto Zilles, “Direct Solar Energy,” in Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Patrick Eickemeier, Patrick Matschoss, Gerrit Hansen, Susanne Kadner, Steffen Schlömer, Timm Zwickel, Christoph von Stechow (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/SRREN_Full_Report-1.pdf; and Staffan Jacobsson and Anna Bergek, “Transforming the Energy Sector: The Evolution of Technological Systems in Renewable Energy Technology,” Industrial and Corporate Change 13, no. 5 (2004): 815-849, https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dth032.

            21. World Bank, Pakistan Off-Grid Lighting Consumer Perception: Study Overview.

            22. “SBP Financing Scheme for Renewable Energy,” Circular no. 10 (Karachi: State Bank of Pakistan, 2019), http://www.sbp.org.pk/smefd/circulars/2019/C10-Annex-I.pdf.

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