Renewable energies: how much and how renewable?
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Abstract
A cautious view of the soft-technology path is advised after examining the resource potential, use, and scale implications of renewable energy resources in poor countries. While available technologies would contribute in rural areas, developing countries need a variety of options to support basic industries and to increase crop productivity. Satellite monitoring reveals that there is insufficient sunshine or wind to be of any help in some of the most densely populated areas. There is not enough data available about solar, wind, or biomass potential to assess either their future value as a resource or the probable consequences of their use. In order for soft technologies to raise the present subsistence levels of energy consumption in these countries, major socio-economic changes must occur at the village level. Scale, either large or small, is not an inherent good, as the Chinese have learned. The infusion of a range of technologies appears to be more rational. 44 references. (DCK)