RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
A quarter of the world population (1.6 billion people) have no
access to electricity. The majority of these live in country areas where
the low density in households makes it commercially unattractive
to develop electricity grid infrastructure. The people are
forced to rely on alternative ways of obtaining energy, such as
lamp oil and candles for lighting, domestic batteries and old
car batteries for radio or TV.
Apart from the fact that they do not respond to the energy
demand, these alternatives also have a harmful effect on people
and the environment, in terms of health (including bronchial
disorders), safety (risk of fire) and contamination from spent
batteries.
Rural electrification offers these households access to a basic
power supply for the use of a few light bulbs, radio and
television. FRES is working on this with Solar Home Systems: a
solar panel plus an accumulator.
Advantages:
- Possibility of doing housework and economic activity
after dark (night falls at 18.00 in the tropics)
- Better access to means of communication such as radio
and TV; and it will be possible to charge mobile phones
- Children perform better when there is good lighting at
school - and at home, for doing homework
- Fewer health problems at home as a result of smoke or
fire risks
- Maternity clinics can offer better care
- Environmentally friendly: the accumulators of Solar Home
Systems are recycled
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 2002 in
Johannesburg it was concluded that access to electricity
contributes to the development of rural areas. FRES and its
partners in rural electrification (EDF/ RAPS) are trying to
achieve this in the most sustainable manner possible. The
"Millennium Goals" are eight targets that were specified by the
United Nations during the WSSD. The
World Bank
has developed a strategy in the domain of energy to help realise
the millennium goals.
"click here to view a
short film about Yeelen Kura" the company that FRES manages in
Mali"
MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND WORLD BANK CORPORATE
STRATEGY IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY SECTOR
MDGs
- Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
- Achieve Universal Primary Education
- Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
- Reduce Child Mortality
- Improve Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases
- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Develop Global Partnership for Development
To help realize these goals, the World Bank Group pursues the
following four major business lines in the infrastructure and
energy sector across all developing and transition countries.
- Help the poor directly by
- facilitating access to modern services and fuels
- reducing the cost and improving the quality of
energy and infrastructure services supplied to
low-income households
- ensuring that energy and infrastructure subsidies
are targeted at and reach the poor
- promoting energy efficient/less polluting end-use
technologies
- increasing the proportion of the population with
sustainable access to water sources and sanitation
- Improve macro/fiscal balances by
- rationalizing energy and infrastructure taxes
- replacing public investments by private ones
- managing risks associated with contingent public
liabilities
- closing loss-making coal mines and oil refineries
and financing restructuring costs that fall on
government budgets
- eliminating operating subsidies to state-owned
energy and infrastructure enterprises and boosting
budget revenues by commercialization and privatization
- Promote good governance and private sector development
by
- creating objective, transparent, non-discriminatory
regulatory mechanisms
- introducing and expanding competition and
cross-border trade
- divesting assets to strategic investors in a
socially responsible and corruption-free way
- catalyzing private partnerships and investments
- strengthening the voice of consumers and communities
- Protect the environment by
- promoting cleaner transport fuels and switching from
coal to gas
- improving access to cleaner and safer water supplies
- facilitating environmentally sustainable extraction,
production, processing, transport and distribution of
oil, gas and coal
- strengthening environmental management capacity in
the energy and infrastructure sector
- removing market barriers to renewables and energy
efficiency investments
- reducing road accidents and road vehicles' emissions
of lead
- reducing gas flaring and facilitating carbon trading
and joint investments to reduce GHG emissions
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