Developing a framework for evaluation of renewable energy in developing countries
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Date
24/11/2011Item status
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Kiarsi, Sepideh
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Abstract
Abstract
In this dissertation, I develop a framework for evaluation of renewable energy projects in
developing countries. There is a global common sense that addressing the increasing energy
demands of both developed and developing countries with the conventional exhaustible fossil
fuels will be difficult in the long-term. In developing countries, in addition to providing
energy for the industrial development, providing services to meet basic human needs such as
heat and light in the rural and poorer regions are other main reasons for their increased energy
demand. This provides the opportunity for renewable energy resources to gain an increasing
share in global energy supply. I explain the environmental and socio-economic impacts of
renewable energy in general and in developing countries as a basis for assessing renewable
energy projects. I evaluate the renewable energy potentials in Kenya, a leading developing
country in East Africa. I investigate the available potentials for different renewable energy
sources in Kenya, which provides valuable information for policy and decision-makers to
alleviate the development-related issues of the country. Furthermore, I identify the main
problems and opportunities associated with renewable energy projects in Kenya, which are
used to develop a decision-making model. Multi-criteria decision making (assessing social,
economic and environmental aspects) is applied here. Based on the potentials, I focus on five
main alternative renewable energy resources in Kenya; wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro
and biomass. For multi-criteria decision analysis, I identify a range of criteria including cost
of generated electricity, job creation, available infrastructure and potential, safety,
environmental impacts and land use. Based on my analysis including multi-criteria decision
analysis of renewable energy in Kenya, geothermal energy gains the highest rank among the
five alternatives which is mainly due to the available extensive resource, government and
industrial supports and relatively low feed-in-tariff.