Development Effects of Electrification from Decentralized Renewable Energy Technologies in Nepalese Context

Abstract

Purpose: Access to electricity is recognized as an important factor for socio-economic development that ultimately contributes to poverty reduction. But, the question is whether it contributes socio-economic development
of rural people and if so to what extent? This research attempted to answer these questions, by evaluating
development effect of electrification from decentralized renewable energy technologies in Nepal. The research
also focused about the effects of electrification perceived by the consumers due to project intervention.
Methods: Accordingly, household data collected from 404 beneficiaries electrified by 84 projects based on a stratified random sample method was used. MS-Excel and IBM-SPSS-25 was used for analyzing data at p = 0.05.
The results were presented as frequency, mean, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation.
Results: The empirical analysis and results revealed that access to electricity induces substantial welfare
gains, which tend to be relatively skewed towards women. An increase in economic activities, improvements on
economic status, contributing environmental conservation, enhanced social cohesion, and improvements in living
standards of rural people were the key determinants of development effects from electrification.
Conclusion: However, access to electricity efforts should be embedded with complementary supports including
awareness, training and fiscal incentives for enhancing the economic use of electricity. Furthermore, poverty is
inversely proportional to electricity access that implies focusing on providing reliable, affordable, and modern
energy access for combating rural poverty in developing countries like Nepal.