The economics of sustainable energy for rural development: A study of renewable energy in rural China

This paper examines recent modeling efforts and case studies to evaluate the economic viability of off-grid renewable energy technologies for rural application in developing countries. Case studies have been conducted for a representative sample of 41 households from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, who have operating experience of at least one year with small, off-grid wind (less than 400 W) and photovoltaic (less than 150 W-p) systems, Our analyses indicate that levelized costs of off-grid, household-scale renewable energy systems are cost-competitive with conventional gasoline gen-sets and PV/wind hybrid systems appear to be an economic means of providing year-round electricity service and meeting the rising energy demands of remote households in Inner Mongolia, Policy recommendations for spurring the market development of renewable energy technologies in developing countries are provided in the final section of the paper, (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.