Live Wire

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/39400

Report Series: Live Wire

This is a Knowledge Note series of the Energy Practice. Those working on the front lines of energy development in emerging economies have a wealth of technical knowledge and case experience to share with their colleagues but seldom have the time to write for publication. Live Wire offers a support system to make sharing knowledge as easy as possible.

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Decarbonizing Ammonia and Nitrogen Fertilizers with Clean Hydrogen
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-12) World Bank
Synthetic fertilizers are essential to sustaining the world’s population, but their production is responsible for 1.8–2.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean hydrogen holds growing potential (amid falling costs) to decarbonize fertilizer production. Hydrogen produces synthetic ammonia, a building block of most fertilizers. With the fertilizer market as a reliable off-taker, this shift could support the overall expansion of clean hydrogen, even as it boosts global food security. However, this transition may require adjustments, including changes in fertilizer types and modifications to existing subsidy schemes.
Mobilizing Commercial Financing to Scale Up Energy Efficiency in the Public Sector
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-22) Limaye, Dilip; Singh, Jas; Lee, Selena Jihyun
Scaling up energy efficiency is critical to the energy transition—and the public sector is a good place to start. Programs in public buildings, in particular, can introduce new models and thus help shape markets. Given the limits of public financing against huge investment needs, countries must unlock commercial financing. The first steps are to adopt international best practices and select financing mechanisms suited to local policy and regulatory frameworks, public agency characteristics, implementation barriers, and the maturity of financial markets.
Using Biomass or Green Ammonia to Replace Coal in Existing Thermal Power Plants: Feasibility and Challenges
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-06) Tavoulareas, Stratos
Finding fuel sources to replace coal in power plants is crucial in the march toward decarbonization. Biomass and ammonia are two options offering significant potential. Both can be used with coal or alone in newly constructed facilities or in modified power plants. Relatively new power plants are good candidates for modification. While work is underway demonstrating the feasibility of each material, there are logistical challenges to address, particularly in the case of ammonia.
Net Zero Energy by 2060: Charting the Path of Europe and Central Asia toward a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-07) Doczi, Szilvia
In the long term, both energy security and decarbonization in the region will depend on substantial increases in national climate ambitions. Achieving those increases will depend, in turn, on equally substantial increases in investment in low-carbon technologies, accompanied by timely policies and regulatory measures. The World Bank has developed a whole-energy-system model, data driven, technology rich, and bottom-up, to project optimal least-cost pathways for Europe and Central Asia to achieve a net zero energy target by 2060. This Live Wire is based on a report published in March 2024 (World Bank and ESMAP 2024).
Mini Grids for Underserved Main Grid Customers
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-21) Tenenbaum, Bernard; Greacen, Chris; Shrestha, Ashish
Can mini grids help to solve the problem of poorly served main grid connected communities A mini grid is an electricity generation and distribution network that supplies electricity to a localized group of customers. Mini grids can be isolated from or connected to the main grid. To date, most mini grids in Sub-Saharan Africa have been built in electrically isolated rural villages not connected to the main grid. Based on broad experience working with mini grid programs in more than 20 low- and middle-income countries and five detailed case studies, the authors offer observations and recommendations about mini grids in general and a new type known as “undergrid mini grids” being used in Nigeria and India to serve poorly served communities.
Mobilizing Carbon Finance to Meet the Socioeconomic Costs of Reforming Energy Tariffs and Subsidies in Uzbekistan
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-07) Safarov, Maksudjon; Smith, Jason James
Across the globe countries are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions to reach carbon neutrality and combat climate change. But doing so can be complicated. Countries are putting a price on carbon emissions (or carbon equivalents for other gases). In a landmark pilot in Uzbekistan, the World Bank is testing a way to reward countries for improving their sustainable energy policies. The program monetizes carbon-cutting efforts and prepares the country to sell carbon credits on the international carbon market.
Adapting Spatial Frameworks to Guide Energy Access Interventions in Urbanizing Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-07) Kersey, Jessica; Koo, Bryan Bonsuk
The extension of electricity into rural areas has been the main focus of efforts to achieve universal access to reliable, affordable, and modern energy by 2030. On the African continent and elsewhere, however, rapid urbanization has produced new patterns of human settlement that blur the distinction between rural and urban. As a case study of Kenya demonstrates, access metrics aggregated at the rural or urban level do not equip governments and their partners to properly identify or target sites for electrification. Spatialized frameworks and data that define space along a rural–urban continuum or as urban catchment areas can improve policy makers’ understanding of the specific barriers to access that communities face.
Understanding CO2 Emissions from Geothermal Power Generation in Turkey
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07) Idrissi, Oumaima; Orucu, Yasemin; Hallgrimsdottir, Elin; Mateos Merino, Almudena; Akin, Serhat; Idrissi, Oumaima
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission factors from Turkish geothermal plants have been measured in the 400 to 1,300 gram per kilowatt-hour (g per kWh) range, significantly higher than the reported global average (121 g per kWh). The good news is that despite these unusually high initial emission factors most, if not all, Turkish geothermal power plants show a steady decline in CO2 emissions over time. Predictive models developed under the World Bank-financed Geothermal Development Project show that estimated average lifetime emissions from Turkey’s geothermal power plants are aligned with the global average. These results justify further investments in the development of geothermal energy in Turkey, along with additional research on how best to manage CO2 emissions.
Powering through the Storm: Climate Resilience for Energy Systems
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09) Ramstein, Celine Sarah Marie; Schweikert, Amy; Ramstein, Celine; Nicolas, Claire
Climate change and its impacts on power systems often mean more frequent power outages and repairs, which raise maintenance costs and pose other challenges. Yet proactive modifications in project design, maintenance, and operation can enhance system resilience at lower costs than reactive adaptation. This Live Wire considers the implications of climate resilience in the power sector and highlights ongoing World Bank work and best practice, with a focus on Africa.
Learning from Large-Scale Solar Home System Electrification in Bangladesh
(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank
The Bangladesh Solar Home Systems (SHS) Program contributed significantly to achieving near-universal access to electricity by installing over 4 million SHSs from 2003 to 2018, serving 16 percent of rural households by 2016. The government mobilized USD 683 million in loans and grants from international development partners for roll-out financing, which leveraged an additional USD 412 million from domestic sources. The Program provided significant benefits to all participants, especially rural households. These experiences are relevant to Sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 600 million people lack electricity access and 40 percent of electricity connections will need to be off-grid to achieve universal access by 2030