Inefficient biomass use in traditional devices has serious environmental effects, locally and globally. The burning of biomass fuels leads to high levels of indoor air pollution that especially affect women and children. Deforestation and a rapidly declining resource base make provision of alternative energy to rural areas for ecological sustainability a crucial prerequisite for food security.

Programs already in place show the viability of using RETs. The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) of India has been promoting the use of photovoltaic technology for energizing unelectrified villages and homes for nearly 15 years. Despite the high initial cost of photovoltaic systems, for certain decentralized applications involving relatively low-load and low-capacity use of conventional power equipment, photovoltaic systems are cost-effective on the basis of life-cycle cost. The life-cycle cost calculations of photovoltaic applications—home lighting systems, water pumping systems, and power plants—show that small-capacity photovoltaic systems are generally competitive with grid extension in locations that are 3–5 kilometers away from the gridline.

Technological and commercial innovations have brought the photovoltaic market within the reach of low-income users. Globally, for example, the cost per watt (peak) of photovoltaic energy fell from about US$25 in 1980 to around US$3.50–4.00 in 2000 (see figure). In Kenya, more than 2.5 megawatts of photovoltaic electricity has been sold, mostly to households in rural areas. In India, the total installed capacity of photovoltaic systems was 47 megawatts as of December 2000; additionally 18 megawatts have been exported.

Wind power has also proved to be a viable energy alternative. In India, more than 1.3 gigawatts of wind energy capacity has been added over the past six years exclusively in the private sector, which either sells electricity to the electric utilities or wheels it over the utility grid for self-consumption.

Studies indicate that cooking with biogas (a highly combustible fuel comprising methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulphide, produced through anaerobic fermentation of organic matter) can be cheaper than cooking with any commercial fuel. In 2000, for instance, using kerosene in a cooking system (Nutan stove) yielded energy and levelized annual costs of Rs 1.60 and 1.65 per kilowatt-hour, respectively, compared with Rs 0.61 and 0.33 per kilowatt-hour, respectively, for a cooking system using biogas (controlled pressure).

The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) has installed or disseminated renewable and energy-efficient technologies in about a hundred villages in different parts of India (see table) by setting up demonstration projects involving and enhancing the capacities of local people to plan, install, and manage these interventions. The key features of these technology-transfer projects were the close involvement of the communities and their contributions of cash and labor to the efforts. These interventions have functioned well, and the community-based institutional arrangements put in place take care of operation and maintenance problems encountered in the long term.

• Provide better lighting. Better lighting enables the poor to stretch their period of economic activity; their children can help them in daily chores and then study in the evenings.
• Help the environment. Efficient use of conventional sources of energy or use of renewable energy helps save the environment from further degradation and gives it an opportunity to regenerate (see table).
• Provide sustainable fuel systems. Afforestation and agroforestry, combined with the introduction of energy-efficient devices, can help create a sustainable fuel-use system within the rural community and sustain the ecological balance of a region.
• Benefit women. Lowered dependency on fuelwood and other household fuel sources reduces the drudgery of women by shortening or eliminating the distances they travel for fuel collection. The improved cookstove, for example, has been associated with an average net annual saving of seven person-days of labor a year in India.
• Benefit human health. Use of improved cookstoves and biogas plants, for example, helps reduce or eliminate health problems associated with using conventional cookstoves, including respiratory diseases and eye problems.
• Enhance income. Alternative energy sources can provide local employment opportunities through direct use of energy in small-scale industry and agriculture, through construction, repair, and maintenance of energy devices, or through the sale of energy to local utilities. In India, for example, biomass gasification systems are used to dry horticulture produce (such as large cardamom and ginger). Another example is the use of solar water-heating systems to meet the hot-water demand of hotels and hospitals.

Therefore, in addition to reorienting research and development priorities, public policy must aim at disseminating RETs in the developing world to reduce costs. Already several technologies—solar water heating, biomethanation, and biomass gasification—are viable alternatives in most rural situations. Removing subsidies on polluting fuels and grid-based power is essential, however, as these make RETs less attractive economically as alternatives. Apart from fiscal policies and measures, the development and large-scale use of RETs would require major interventions at the grassroots level, including the provision of microfinancing arrangements.

In summary, a sustainable approach for poverty alleviation employing energy-technology interventions would essentially need to address the following:

• Adapting technology to the specific needs of the communities;
• Building the capability of rural communities to maintain RETs for continued use;
• Ensuring that financial packages (microfinancing) are available to improve the access of these communities to such solutions;
• Ensuring that market mechanisms are in place to provide these solutions; and
• Formulating appropriate policy to facilitate the adoption of these solutions at the grassroots level.

Finally, global food security cannot be attained unless poverty among the world’s rural population is eliminated. Innovative approaches to solving the energy problems of this segment of the human race are important not only because past efforts have largely failed, but also because alternative energy technologies are opening up exciting new opportunities in this area.

R. K. Pachauri (pachauri@teri.res.in) and Pooja Mehrotra (poojas@teri.res.in) are director general and research associate, respectively, of the Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi, India.