Study of selected issues pertaining to the economics of renewable energy utilization in developing countries

Renewable energy sources are being developed as potential alternatives to conventional energy supply options in developing countries. Some of the issues affecting the economics of renewable energy utilization in developing countries are briefly described in this article. Using the available estimates for the utilization potential of several renewable energy technologies in the country and four technology diffusion models, time variation of their likely dissemination is presented. To exemplify the techno-economic evaluation procedure, expressions for the unit cost of water delivered have been derived for four renewable energy technologies for water pumping. Expressions derived for three measures of economic performance incorporating the effect of capital subsidy and also for the user’s investment requirement for different combinations of financial and/or fiscal incentives have also been presented. A simple approach to estimate the CO2 emissions mitigation potential and the corresponding unit cost for the four renewable energy technologies for water pumping and solar drying is presented in the paper. Results of some sample calculations are presented and discussed.