Rural electrification

Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2017, over 1 billion people worldwide lack household electric power - 14% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into road blocks in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas (yielding higher per capita share of the expense). If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development. Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2017, over 1 billion people worldwide lack household electric power - 14% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into road blocks in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas (yielding higher per capita share of the expense). If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development. This graph shows the world rural electrification rate along with the electrification growth rate from 1990-2016 and synthesizes data from the World Bank Access to electricity facilitates sustainable economic and social growth. First, through an increase in educational achievement. Students who were previously forced to study when the sun was shining are now able to study by the light of LEDs early in the morning or late into the night. In Kenya for example, interviews with school teachers revealed that access to light has allowed for extra hours of teaching earlier and later in the day to cover material not adequately reviewed during normal hours. Additionally, schools with access to electricity are able to recruit higher quality teachers and have seen improvements on test scores and graduation rates, raising the human capital entering the labor force in the future. In addition to improved education, rural electrification also allows for greater efficiency and productivity. Businesses will be able to keep their doors open for longer and generate additional revenues. Farmers will have access to streamlined modern techniques such as irrigation, crop processing, and food preservation. In 2014, rural communities in India gained more than US$21 million from increased economic activity driven by recent additions of electricity. When expanding the electrical grid, there is a demand for thousands of jobs ranging from business development to construction. Projects to spread electricity create a wealth of job opportunities and help to alleviate poverty. For example, India set a target of 175GW of clean energy to be installed by 2022 to increase electrification throughout the country. An estimated 300,000 jobs will need to be created in order to reach these lofty goals. The availability of electricity can drastically increase the quality of healthcare provided. Improved lighting increases the time patients can come and get treatment. Refrigerators can be used to conserve incredibly valuable vaccines and blood. Sterilization measures will be improved and the implementation of high tech machines such as x-rays or ultrasound scanners can provide doctors and nurses the tools they need to perform. In Diara Rhashalpool, a cluster of villages on the river Ganges, 140 households are without power. The locals are forced to travel 2-3 hours across the river for treatment or access to vaccines. With access to electricity, treatment would be far more accessible to the local population. Renewable off-grid enterprises have emerged in many areas to meet the demand for electricity in rural communities. Due to their geographical location and relatively low aggregate demand, expanding the nationwide grid to rural areas is expensive and challenging. Renewable energy based mini grids are less dependent on larger-scale infrastructure and can be implemented faster and cheaper. Where an electric power distribution grid can be set up single wire earth return is often used. The following technologies are used extensively: