Decentralized Energy

Ahead of the release of the World Bank's revised energy strategy, the Ecologist speaks to sustainable development advocate Srinivas Krishnaswamy about why despite huge gigawatt power projects, 45 per cent of India's households still lack electricity Does India need the World Bank? Not really, if you are looking at funding from the World Bank for energy projects. The World Bank does not directly fund both of the energy projects coming up in India. Some of it is coming from the IFC but then you have the private sector also investing heavily into energy infrastructure. When it comes to

Cahora Bassa power lines bypass Zambezi villagers Lori Pottinger Mozambique has among the lowest uses of electricity in the world. Yet virtually all of the electricity it does produce from Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi is shipped to its wealthy neighbor, South Africa. As the government prepares to build another costly large dam on the Zambezi that will also power South Africa rather than homes and businesses in Mozambique, a new report lays out a saner plan for developing renewable energy sources across the nation that would share the energy wealth more equitably; diversify the national el

New Plan Shares the Wealth, Spares the Zambezi From September 2009 World Rivers ReviewMozambique is painting itself into a corner. Already extremely hydropower-dependent, the poor Southern African nation's next priority energy project is yet another large, costly dam on the Zambezi, at a time when climate change threatens to make the river's flow more erratic and hydropower more risky. The Mphanda Nkuwa Dam's power will primarily be for export to South Africa, since Mozambique's people are too poor, and its national grid too small, to make the dam economically viable for domestic use. Local N

An illustrated PDF of "A Green Energy Plan for Mozambique," World Rivers Review, Sept. 2009

Photo: Shannon Graham Millions of people around the globe are now living without the benefit of modern energy services. Large dams connected to urban grids are ill-suited to meeting their needs. Renewable energy technologies produce clean energy, can be better scaled to meet demand than large dams, reduce dependence on problematic energy sources such as fossil fuels and large hydro, and can be used in rural areas far from the grid, where most of the world’s un-electrified communities are located. Renewables create more jobs, and more localized jobs. Many renewables are now only the ch