Recherche pétrolière et gazière

Abstrait

Biomass as a solution for rural area electrification. Opportunities and challenges

Santeri Rantala

Biomass is widely available around south east asia. At the moment utilization is on a low-level due lack of technology and infrastructure in rural areas. Electricity is mainly generated by expensive diesel which emits high amounts of CO2 not only when burned in genset but also during refining and transporting. Biomass at the rural areas is existing in large volumes and in many parts as a waste from agriculture and wood industries. One of the challenges is to have the local community to pay for the electricity as usually governments are subsidising the diesel, making it relatively cheap to be used as a fuel in generators. Other aspect is to look at the industrialization of the rural areas if biomass is used as a fuel. Local community would have opportunity to cultivate the energy crop and sell it to the power plant. This would bring employment to the areas and support the local community in long term.