At least, one-third of world’s population cannot take advantage of the energy

resources, just because they didn’t have access to the same. The reasons are
two-fold, either unavailability of energy resources or the economical
unfeasibility. The inequalities in electricity are larger than the inequalities in the
energy usage. In 2005, average per capita energy consumption in the OECD
countries was more than four times average per capita energy consumption
across all non-OECD countries, and nearly seven times the average per capita
energy consumption in Africa. Sustainable energy has the capacity to fulfil the
energy needs of such a vast population of developing nations which are usually
residing in distant remote locations as small groups rather than having large
towns. Although, major developing countries are investing huge sums in
renewable energy but the case is not the same for each of the developing nation.
In 2017, world saw global clean energy investment of 333.5 billion USD, in which
China has a share of 40%.

Figure 1: Expected trend of energy usage (Adapted from:- Ellabban et al., 2013)

Since the current scenario and the future prediction suggests that the energy
usage will be maximum in terms of electricity usage only. Hence, most of the
discussion in the following sections followed will be related to electricity
production and usage.
The ever increasing demand of energy and concern of keeping the economic and
environmental costs as low as possible has been a great challenge for developing
countries in the recent years. Choosing the right energy source in order to
balance the energy needs and keeping the environmental impact low is a road
block for economic growth of developing countries, since most of the renewable
and sustainable energy sources do not present as an economically profitable
source as compared to conventional sources. There are various barriers to the
adoption of such clean and sustainable energy sources in developing nations.
These barriers belong to various categories such as economic, technical,
ecological and geographical, awareness and cultural or maybe even political. It
is necessary for nations to understand these barriers to the actual ensemble of
challenges associated with energy sector, before they formulate their policies
and adopt any ‘renewable/sustainable energy technologies’.

Figure 1: pictorial representation of barriers to clean energy in developing nations

The barriers are explained as follows.

 Higher initial capital investments
Since the nations are not technologically advanced and equipped with the
proper facilities (either industrial or institutional) to develop the technologies
indigenously, hence importing the same from the technologically advanced and
highly industrialized countries brings huge amount of investment costs and
turns out to be more expensive than locally manufactured technology. In
developing nations, spending huge loads of capital on clean energy initially,
would not be prioritized even if the operating costs are lower.
These figures suggest that the rise in GDP to electricity ratio was quite higher
for developed nations as compared to developing nations and hence they are
able to invest huge capital in renewable and clean energy.
 Lack of competent financing mechanism and subsidies
The governments in developing nations have to focus on basic needs such as
health, education, infrastructure development and industrialization that most
of the resources are used up in providing incentives to these sectors. That is
why, usually, there is a dearth of sufficient and competent government
incentive schemes or financing mechanisms which may promote the adoption
and utilization of renewable and clean energy for industries and even at
decentralized residential level. The small and medium scale industries do not
possess enough budgets to spend on such adoption practices and also, can’t
find any incentive from the government. Since, small scale industries make up
a large chunk of industrial sector in developing nations, it is necessary for these
shift to cleaner energy.
Although recently, steps have been taken to encourage renewable sources in
India (providing subsidies for solar PV setups) but they are restricted to certain
technologies that may not be applicable everywhere (considering the
geographical constraints and availability of the resource). Hence, it is necessary
to provide region specific solutions and subsidies accordingly.
 Inefficient technology
In developing nations, the present energy sector is not at its maximum efficiency
even when conventional energy sources are considered. For instance, the fossil
fuel fired thermal power plants are emitting 50-120% more CO2 per kWh in India
as compared to developed nations in Europe. Hence, there is a risk of
underperformance from the technology for cleaner energy sources. These risk
and issues could be site-specific and technical but they make up for enough
reasons to reject the adoption of newer technology, since there is a constant
risk that it may turn obsolete prematurely. Also, since renewable technology is
at a disadvantage in financial terms when compared to existing conventional
sources, so the lack of reliability poses a barrier for adoption of advanced
technology.
 Lack of market and consumer awareness
The stakeholders and the consumers are unaware of the latest technologies and
lack the access to the information regarding the companies and energy projects
in the renewable energy sector. This is directly related to the market that
available for sustainable electricity or energy. Since, the renewable energy
companies usually are smaller and have fewer resources, which is why they are
unable to communicate with large number of customers for negotiations and
their participation in industrial forums is limited as well. Hence, they are not
capable of generating a market base for themselves where their own interests
are fulfilled and as well as services can be provided to the consumers. The trade
policies of some countries like India discourage the foreign investment in
energy technology in order to favour indigenous markets, which is not a
favourable state for technological exchange and growth of sustainable energy
market.
 Figure 2: Renewable energy market development process

 Lack of paying capacity

When we talk about clean energy sources, mostly its benefit of decentralization
of energy generation turns out to be a major advantage for their application in
developing nations. But, the decentralized power generation facilities are set
up in remote locations mostly, which targets the rural areas and poor
customers. That population have limited capacity to invest in such capital
extensive technologies and that too when there is an unreliability associated
with them. These technologies are more expensive for developing countries
since they are not in mass production in such markets. People are unwilling to
pay higher prices for renewable energy when conventional sources are capable
of doing so at lower prices.
Also, currently the most preferred clean energy source is solar, since it is
available mostly at every location and in abundance. But, due to weather
conditions and daylight hours, it is necessary to have energy storage devices
which can provide consistent power supply. Not only for solar energy, other
sources also require storage facilities to maintain an uninterrupted power
supply. These energy storage devices also incur high initial capital cost as well as
high maintenance costs and their disposal is a major environmental issue.
 Lack of R&D, and technological complexities
The renewable and clean energy technologies are in dire need of research and
development work in developing nations. The lack of resources to fuel the
research work is a barrier to the adoption of these technologies. Companies do
not find any direct benefit from R&D investments whereas government cannot
supply enough funds for the same.
The technology we are talking is complex, since the natural processes that are
utilized by these technologies for energy generation are complex in nature. That
complexity needs to be clearly analysed in order to optimize the output of a
problem which has multiple conflicting objectives. But firstly it is necessary to
study those objectives and their properties in order to get an optimal solution.
So, this again points out to the same problem of lack of R&D. Since, without
proper study of the situation, finding the optimal solution having a scientifically
sound basis is difficult. That is why, most of the times nations end up with
severely compromised solutions.

 Incapable institutions and capacity building programmes

Most of the developing nations lack the work force, trained to handle complex
scenarios and with great coping facilities. Inadequacy of guidance and technical
support for operators prevents the complete utilization of sustainable energy
sources. Trained professionals can be found for mainstream works but the
energy sector also requires skilled workforce and premier institutions capable
of providing that training are usually not present in enough number in
developing countries. The current incapability of institutions is a collective result
of other barriers such as lack of adequate funding, incompetence of trainers
currently employed and lack of employment prospects to students who
successfully complete such programmes.
 Lack of resources and infrastructure
Lack of infrastructure is another aspect of institutional barrier, that is, problems
related to the availability necessary for dissemination of resources and
transmission of information and energy. Unavailability of infrastructure such as
roads, connectivity to grids for renewable sources, communications and other
logistics. Along with that ever increasing demand of resources and inefficient,
non-judicious utilization of present resources leaves the developing nations with
a scarcity of natural resources. Although, reduction in non-renewable energy
sources may encourage the growth of renewable resources and put these on
business agenda of industries.
 Lack of experience and commitment
It is suggested to establish decentralized clean energy facilities and micro grids
but lack of experience with handling such technologies and insufficient
assistance in this regard pose a great challenge for adoption of renewable
energy technologies. Since, industries and government can’t find motivation for
setting up such technologies and hence we are left with corrupt commitments
from government. For instance, in India, it is more of a political issue as well as
a strategic challenge, since corruption and lack of civil society are major barriers
in renewable energy technology adoption.

THE WAY FORWARD

The process of clean energy technology adoption and judicial implementation in
developing countries requires consideration of multiple aspects. But, the
problem is addressed here from two point of views. Firstly, developing the
technology indigenously or acquiring it from foreign industrialized countries
(which is also termed as ‘technology transfer’). Secondly, making necessary
changes in the current policies of energy production and dissemination
strategies.

The process of choosing the right technology is crucial. For developing nations,
it is necessary to take a closer look at the economic development potentials of
mitigation technologies which will make the policy formulation of technology
transfer a lot more transparent. The technology adoption capacity of the
recipient country must be considered as a crucial aspect when technology
properties with respect to the technology complexity is being addressed.
Renewable energy systems can be classified in two categories: i) centralized
renewable energy system; ii) Decentralized renewable energy system (DRES).
DRES includes systems like solar lantern, solar home system, family-type biogas
plant, improved biomass cook stoves. These systems require far less investment
than centralized renewable energy systems and provide an optimum solution to
residential energy needs of rural household where electrification is either not
feasible or not economical for the government. Although, these systems seem
flawless and easily applicable, but diffusion and utilization of relatively newer
technology such as DRES also face some barriers. The barriers are minor and can
be easily overcome. These barriers pertain to resource availability, technology
installation, performance and maintenance. There could be economic barriers
as well but those can be easily tackled by government interventions and
support.
While DRES relied completely on clean and renewable energy sources, another
solution can be construction of Micro-grids. A micro-grid is a small scale, discrete
electricity system consisting of renewable and traditional energy sources and
storage with energy management.

Figure 3: Graphical representation of Micro-Grids

This will enable utilization of the energy produced by consumers by their own
energy sources while still be connected to the main electricity grid. It can be a
standalone system in itself if in any case main electricity is disconnected. This
can reduce the demand of energy by integrating energy sources and storage.
The advantages exist for both end-user and electricity utilities, distributors. End-
users enjoy higher overall sustainability and reliability. Whereas the local
utilities will be benefitted as they can do repairs without affecting customer
loads and providing dispatchable load for use during peak power conditions. The
only challenge with scaling up the implementation of micro-grids is that the
renewable energy is still very expensive.
 Figure 4: Challenges with integration of renewables with current energy system

The issues with micro-grids are more of technological and regulatory kind. The
challenge of dual-mode switching functionality and its successful
implementation for varying power inputs has not been resolved even after
extensive research efforts. Another problem lies with such electrically complex
system, and that is with faults and failures of the components which can harm
the consumer’s equipment and personnel. Challenge lies with prevention of
micro-grid from being exposed to high voltages during external faults. For the
same installation of protective relays and initiation of circuit breakers can be a
possible solution.
The major policy changes should include promotion of energy efficiency of
current systems, so that the future energy sources can be efficiently harnessed.
The policies on subsidy provided for clean energy systems needs to be revisited
and should be formulated considering the regional availability of best available
technology. The importance of technology transfer should be understood and
support from developed nations should be taken which will be enable adoption
of best available clean energy technology as well as it will push the indigenous
human and institutional capacity needed to support sustainable energy
technologies.
It should be understood that the policies for sustainable energy should
contribute towards societal and economic development objectives. It is
necessary to avoid the policies which have cost-cutting incentives. Rather focus
should be on creating positive synergies. Harmonizing every group is not always
possible for government and hence countries should plan with long term vision
rather than pursuing a comprehensive set of policies all at once which are aimed
at achieving short term goals.
Developing nations have an advantage that they can avoid the mistakes made
by already developed nations on the path of achieving sustainable clean energy
systems. Changing the incentives and overcoming the barriers is a question of
political will and coordination than it is one of the adequate resources.