Publication: Mongolia : Development Impacts of Solar-Powered Electricity Services
Loading...
Published
2014-01
ISSN
Date
2014-09-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Mongolia is a vast landlocked country with a relatively small population. Other than those living in the capital city and a few urban centers, the rest of its citizens (about 35 percent or one million people) are geographically disbursed throughout the rural countryside. Among them about three quarters are nomadic herders living in portable tents (gers). Given the immense logistical and climatic challenges, rural electrification was largely undeveloped until the Government launched the National 100,000 Solar Ger Electrification Program in 1999. The World Bank-assisted Renewable Energy and Rural Electricity Access Project (REAP) was conceived in 2006 to help the Government revitalize the 100k Program and remove other barriers to rural electrification. The ultimate objective of the project was to increase electricity access and improve the reliability of services in off-grid soum centers and amongst the herder population. The main portion of this report is divided into two chapters (Chapters 2-3). Chapter 2 is a brief description of the two beneficiary surveys carried out after REAP was completed. It includes the methodologies used, the survey processes, and the survey's areas of focus. Chapter 3 presents the main results and findings of the surveys based on qualitative and quantitative information and data collected. They include three main aspects: use and sustainability of REAP portable photovoltaic solar home systems; immediate impacts of the resulting changes in energy use patterns; and where the availability and use of electricity have the most impact on the nomadic herder community's quality of life and development.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2014. Mongolia : Development Impacts of Solar-Powered Electricity Services. Asia Sustainable and Alternative Energy Program;. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20081 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Photovoltaics for Community Service Facilities(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010)In many developing countries with large rural populations and low rural electrification rates, most community health and education facilities lack access to electricity. For facilities in remote areas beyond reach of the national grid, photovoltaic's (PV) systems may offer the most practical and least-cost way to access electricity. A PV system uses predictable solar resources and has long been cost competitive with diesel generators and other alternatives. In off-grid rural primary schools and health dispensaries, for example, PV systems oftentimes are an appropriate way to run many low-power, high-value appliances and equipment, from lamps and vaccine refrigerators to water pumps, television sets, and computers. Thus, if the electricity grid is not expected to arrive in the near future or if diesel fuel is unavailable or too expensive, a PV system may offer the least-cost technology for providing electricity service. If this rapid assessment determines that PV is a viable option, it results in a brief concept for a possible project and the plan for its preparation. The project concept is discussed with stakeholders and independent specialists, including off-grid renewable energy specialists, and is adjusted as appropriate. The plan for project preparation takes into account an assessment of available information and activities to be undertaken during preparation to fill gaps and generate additional and improved data. The second phase of project development is the preparation of the PV implementation plan. This is accomplished with the assistance of several specialists, including a PV technical specialist, and involves working closely with lead organization managers and specialists, broad-based stakeholder consultations, and multiple iterations. The third phase of project development, procurements and contract management, involves securing firm financing commitments (including those for post-project recurrent costs), developing tender packages, tendering and contracting, and contract management. The fourth phase, long-term operation, is where too many projects fail. In summary, this toolkit is, at a minimum, a checklist of key issues to address in developing an institutional PV project. While it is not a technical manual, nor a substitute for using professional PV specialists to size, configure, and specify system and maintenance requirements, it offers practical operational guidance to assess, develop, and implement projects with PV systems in ways that enhance cost effective supply and sustainable post-project operations. The guidance offered herein demonstrates that the opportunities for effectively addressing the issues to establish the basis for sustainability are many.Publication Connection Charges and Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-06)Sub-Saharan Africa trails other regions in providing access to electricity for poor urban and rural residents. This poor performance can be linked to various factors, including political interference in utility policy, higher investment costs and lower profitability of extending service to rural areas. But a major obstacle to wider access is the high charges consumers must pay to connect to the electricity network. The connection charges in Sub-Saharan Africa are among the highest in the world, which has resulted in low rates of electrification in many countries. This paper reviews ways to improve electrification rates by addressing the issue of high connection charges. Essential to the success of such efforts is concurrent political commitment to identify, examine, and implement various low-cost electrification approaches and financing solutions as part of a broad plan to improve access. Electricity companies can lower their connection-related costs, and thus consumer charges, by using a variety of low-cost technologies and materials in distribution networks and household connections; making bulk purchases of materials; and adjusting technical standards to reflect the lower loads of households that use a minimum amount of electricity. Strategies for lowering connection charges may also include spreading charges over a reasonable period, rolling them into monthly service payments, subsidizing connections, or amortizing them through loans. Lowering connection charges is not the only step, but it is an essential part of any strategy for addressing the electricity access gap between rich and poor households in Sub-Saharan Africa, a gap that denies millions of poor Africans the benefits of electricity.Publication One Goal, Two Paths : Achieving Universal Access to Modern Energy in East Asia and the Pacific(World Bank, 2011-09-14)The purpose of the current flagship report is to address energy access and related developmental issues in East Asia Pacific (EAP) that so far have received less attention compared to the macro energy issues of climate change and reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EAP countries have two steep paths to climb to achieve universal access to modern energy: electricity and modern cooking solutions. Approximately 170 million people, or 34 million households, in EAP countries do not have electricity connections in their homes. This number is equivalent to approximately 9 percent of the Region's total population, and 30 percent of the Region's population excluding China. Moreover, approximately 6 times that number, or over 1 billion people, still lack access to modern cooking solutions. In addition, EAP is exceeded by only Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia in the number of people who lack access to electricity. However, access to both electricity and modern cooking solutions is essential to address the enduring impacts of poverty and to move the poor onto a rising development trajectory. The link between access to modern energy and development is most clearly defined by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDGs were formulated to reduce global poverty while increasing education, empowering women, and improving child and maternal health. Although there is no direct reference to energy in the MDGs, the need for access to energy, particularly modern energy, to improve overall welfare is well recognized by the development community.Publication ICT Solutions for Energy Efficiency(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)The report is focused on showing a wide range and variety of ways in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions could play a transformative role, and so the bulk of the report provides case studies of actual examples of ICT solutions already developed and in action to enable energy efficiency in three particular areas, namely, smart logistics, smart grid/smart metering, and smart buildings. Ultimately, in line with the WBG's charter, this study is concerned with the question of how ICT can play a transformative role in developing countries'climate-smart future. However, as the World Development Report 2010 recognized, this is bound to start in higher-income countries, which have the incentives (being high-energy and high-cost users), the technical know-how and the resources to innovate and implement pioneering solutions to cut their costs and their carbon emissions. Some such solutions will have applicability to the developing world; a minority right away, more year by year as technology is proven and efficiencies of scale kick in. The report concludes with some thoughts, drawn out of these case studies, on the trajectory of ICT in energy efficiency in the world generally, but especially within the focus areas of logistics, the grid and buildings, and on what these case studies might mean for developing countries and their priorities in terms of energy efficiency.Publication The Role of Men in the Economic and Social Development of Women : Implications for Gender Equality(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01)This paper is a critical review of the literature on the issue of how male behavior affects female outcomes in the promotion of gender equality. It employs the family as the main unit of analysis because a large part of gender interactions occurs within this institution. This survey first summarizes recent studies on the distribution of power within the family and identifies several factors that have altered the bargaining position of men and women over the last decades. It then reviews empirical work on the contribution of men, as fathers and husbands, to the health and socioeconomic outcomes of women in both developed and developing countries. Finally, it discusses a set of economic policies that have intentionally or unintentionally affected men's attitudes and behaviors. The main implication is that policies meant to achieve gender equality should focus on men rather than exclusively target women.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication State and Trends of the Carbon Market—2004(2005)This study describes the status of the emerging carbon market, as of May 2004. The carbon market encompasses trades of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowances (under the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme), and project-based transactions, whereby a buyer participates in the financing of a project that reduces GHG emissions, compared with what would have happened otherwise, and gets emission reduction credits in exchange (for example, Clean Development Mechanism, or Joint Implementation projects under the Kyoto Protocol). The study finds that the carbon market is growing steadily. A total of 64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) has been exchanged through projects from January to May 2004, nearly as much as during the whole year 2003 (78 million). Furthermore, the demand for emission reductions remains heavily concentrated, with a few EU governments, and Japanese firms the largest buyers. Finally, Asia is now the largest supplier of emission reductions, followed by Latin America, developed economies, and Eastern Europe. Prices of project-based emission reductions in early 2004 have remained essentially stable compared with 2003. In the absence of a standard contract, these prices strongly depend on the structure of the transaction, notably risk-sharing between buyers and sellers.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-01-10)Global growth is projected to decelerate sharply, reflecting synchronous policy tightening aimed at containing very high inflation, worsening financial conditions, and continued disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Investment growth in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is expected to remain below its average rate of the past two decades. Further adverse shocks could push the global economy into recession. Small states are especially vulnerable to such shocks because of the reliance on external trade and financing, limited economic diversification, elevated debt, and susceptibility to natural disasters. Against this backdrop, it is critical that EMDE policy makers ensure that any fiscal support is focused on vulnerable groups, that inflation expectations remain well anchored, and that financial systems continue to be resilient. Urgent global and national efforts are also needed to mitigate the risks of global recession and debt distress in EMDEs, and to support a major increase in EMDE investment.Publication Energizing Green Cities in Southeast Asia : Applying Sustainable Urban Energy and Emissions Planning(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-09)Fast-growing cities in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region will define the region's energy future and its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. Rapid urbanization and growing standards of living offer a major opportunity to EAP cities to become the global engines of green growth by choosing energy efficient solutions to suit their infrastructure needs and by avoiding locking in energy-intensive infrastructure. The underlying studies in three EAP pilot cities show a clear correlation between investments in energy efficient solutions in all major infrastructure sectors and economic growth by improving energy and GHG emissions efficiency, cities not only help the global environment, but they also support local economic development through productivity gains, reduced pollution, and more efficient use of resources. Thus, the Bank is well positioned to assist municipal governments in building institutions, creating policies, developing long-term green growth plans that will attract financial support and investments from both the private sector and the donor community, and linking efficiency and low carbon programs to international concessional financing and funding, as well as to the private sector investors who will play an important role in achieving green growth objectives. This paper is organized as follows: part one focuses on urban energy use and GHG emissions in EAP; part two presents sustainable urban energy and emissions planning in three pilot cities; and part three gives sustainable urban energy and emissions planning guidebook: a guide for cities in EAP.Publication Envisioning 5G-Enabled Transport(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The transport industry has entered a period of rapid advancement, and the pace of change is only increasing. The proliferation of electric vehicles, rapid advances in autonomous vehicles, the advent of the sharing economy and digital platforms, advances in big data and machine learning, and rapidly evolving business models, such as eCommerce and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), are causing profound changes throughout the sector. The development and rollout of fifth-generation (5G) mobile broadband has the potential to not only support, but accelerate these revolutionary changes as today’s digital transport solutions evolve and entirely new opportunities become viable. 5G presents a variety of benefits over previous generations of wireless connectivity, including greater bandwidth, lower latency, capacity to dedicate resources for critical functions, potential for greatly expanded numbers of devices, and easy sharing of data. In some cases, we see dramatic and exponential gains from previous technologies. Each of these 5G features will have an impact in the transport sector, contributing to transport-specific applications. Of these, three key opportunities present themselves: (1) revolutionary advancements in the potential connectivity of vehicles, (2) an increase in the number and ubiquity of connected devices, and (3) improved data availability for transport operations and management. When applying these new technologies to transport, changes can be expected across the sector, with—to some extent—no corner left untouched. While impossible to foresee all potential applications, the study predicts three likely and significant changes: (1) the rise of connected and autonomous vehicles, (2) increasingly smart and efficient logistics, and (3) improved urban transportation with the implementation of MaaS platforms. Figure E.1 highlights some of these key impact linkages between 5G and the transport sector. 5G-enabled vehicles will differ from those in use today, with business models in the transport sector expected to differ significantly from the current paradigm. Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will bring together a series of changes impacting the sector, including connectivity, electrification, autonomy, and new business models such as MaaS. While the connectivity provided by 5G represents only one enabling facet of this equation, it fundamentally changes the overall potential scope and viability of the model.