SINHAS Vol 30 No 2 Bikash Pandey
Nepal’s Economic Transformation Using its Surplus Electricity
Bikash Pandey
Abstract
Nepal has a surplus of electricity generation that is slated to grow each year for the coming decades. The Ministry of Energy Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI) has developed an ambitious 10-year roadmap showing a quadrupling of per capita domestic consumption of electricity while at the same time increasing exports to neighboring countries to five times the country’s current total generation capacity. The Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) has developed an alternative “long-term strategy” that calls for using the green electricity, which is generated with renewable hydropower and solar energy, to reduce the country’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero over the next 20 years. This paper reviews these strategies and attempts to answer the questions: 1) which sectors of the economy are best placed to utilize the projected surplus power and 2) how intensive electrification of these sectors can generate new livelihoods for Nepali youth to find jobs in their own country and increase per capita incomes so their families can afford to use the generated electricity to improve their quality of life.
Keywords: Electricity surplus, green electricity, transforming key economic sectors, new livelihoods
Nepal’s Economic Transformation Using its Surplus Electricity
Bikash Pandey
Abstract
Nepal has a surplus of electricity generation that is slated to grow each year for the coming decades. The Ministry of Energy Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI) has developed an ambitious 10-year roadmap showing a quadrupling of per capita domestic consumption of electricity while at the same time increasing exports to neighboring countries to five times the country’s current total generation capacity. The Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) has developed an alternative “long-term strategy” that calls for using the green electricity, which is generated with renewable hydropower and solar energy, to reduce the country’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero over the next 20 years. This paper reviews these strategies and attempts to answer the questions: 1) which sectors of the economy are best placed to utilize the projected surplus power and 2) how intensive electrification of these sectors can generate new livelihoods for Nepali youth to find jobs in their own country and increase per capita incomes so their families can afford to use the generated electricity to improve their quality of life.
Keywords: Electricity surplus, green electricity, transforming key economic sectors, new livelihoods