Resurrection of ESMAP Knolwedge Exchange Series 2005-2009

Between 2005 and 2009 I was the technical editor of an ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Series that involved the publication of four page summaries of current energy issues.   When I recently reviewed these notes after four years, I was struck by both the quality of these four page notes and the continuing relevance of the issues covered.  Also, most of the authors of these notes have 20 to 30 years of experience of working on energy in developing countries issues.   Because they are no longer very prominent on the ESMAP website, buried beneath more recent work, I have decided to resurrect them in this blog

I am sorry for the long delay between posts.  Both an illness and work somehow got in the way of working on this blog.  I have decided to revive it, but will not post as often as before.  But continue to check back as there will be more to come. 

Retroactively I have grouped these Knowledge Exchange Notes into four groups.  The first is on grid and offgrid rural electrification programs.  The second is on electricity generated mainly for the electricity grid.  The third group is biomass energy both for cooking and transport.  Finally, there are two notes on how rising energy prices impact the poor. 

Energy Services for the Poor: A Review of World Bank Lending

By Doug Barnes

A couple of years ago I completed this review of Modernizing Energy Services for the Poor:  A World Bank Investment Review 2000-2008.  This was followed by extensive reviews and then revisions.  And this was followed by new revisions and fresh reviews and so on and so forth.  I am happy to announce that this report is finally out and comments are welcome, but no more reviews please. 



Source: World Bank Investments in Energy Access: 2000-08(Figures are Millions)

It may seem like a trivial exercise to classify energy access lending, but nothing could be further from the truth.  When you think about it almost all energy investments can be considered as promoting or being related to energy access.  Energy sector reform makes it possible to have a well functioning energy markets, and this is turn means the electricity and other forms of energy can reach the poor.  Likewise, rural electrification would not be possible without generation and transmission projects.  So where do you draw the line for ruling in investments as relating to energy access energy poverty or ruling them out. 

Where is Energy Poverty's REN21?

There is quite a bit of work going into monitoring and evaluation in developing countries today. This is mainly due to the international donor’s need to document that their projects either work or do not work. However, the effort to track international energy demand--as opposed to energy production--has lagged behind these efforts.

Rural Electrification, Peru:  Photo Laura Berman

For energy at least, there are several sources for international energy statistics such as rural electrification, renewable energy, and other forms of energy. But I can attest from doing two recent blogs on improved biomass stoves and rural electrification, it is not easy to gain access to these figures. The problems are that some classifications of statistics are not updated frequently, you have to pay a premium price to obtain them, or they are mostly based on production and not demand statistics.

That is why I want to congratulate the team at REN21 for publishing a yearly report on the status of renewable energy, with a recently released report for 2010. I got an inside glimpse of this work this year as the author of the chapter on rural renewable energy. So I can tell you the process of assembling all this information every year is not easy. Here is a quote from Eric Martinot who is one of the lead coauthors (along with Janet Sawin) of the report.

“I am pleased to announce publication of the REN21 Renewables 2010 Global Status Report. The report is a unique global synthesis of markets, investment, industry, policy, and rural energy, produced annually since 2005. This year the report is the best ever!This year's edition highlights many trends and milestones. One thing that stands out is how renewables are achieving parity with fossil fuels in several respects, including total investment in new power capacity and total amount of capacity added. And most growth rates in 2009 kept to 5-year and even decade-long averages. …You can download the full report from the REN21 website (including press release and other materials).”