Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihood (RERL)

Despite the great increase over the past two decades in the number of households with access to electricity, still less than 44% of Nepal’s population has access to electricity (as of 2009) with the rural elctrification rate being 34%. Alongside this, in Nepal about 84% of all cooking energy comes from traditional biomass. This continued reliance on fuelwood, agricultural residues and cattle dung for cooking depletes the forests of trees and farmers’ fields of natural fertilisers. These statistics, the 7% annual growth of Nepal’s energy needs, the  lack of national energy generation capacity and the importance of conserving the environment show why giving Nepal’s villages access to clean and renewable sources of energy is a priority for Nepal’s development.

Between 1996 and March 2011, the Rural Energy Development Programme (REDP)enabled more than 50,000 households to light their homes, cook their food and power their enterprises from sources of clean energy (see table of achievements). This happened in the course of REDP developing a successful community-managed model for extending access to electricity in Nepal’s rural areas.

The programme helped to formulate the policies and the institutional framework for the decentralized development and management of rural energy supplies. By its end the project had helped establish district energy and environment units (DEEUs) in 72 district government bodies (DDCs) for local energy development. It had also importantly trained all the communities it supported to run and maintain their micro-hydro schemes. A key part of the model is that local communities co-finance the installation of new schemes and operate and manage them after completion. Funding is managed by district energy funds in the districts.

These successes have led to the REDP model being adopted by the government in its landmark Rural Energy Policy (2006) and as the basis for its nationwide Micro-hydro Village Electrification Programme (MHVEP), which is funded by the World Bank.

The Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihood programme (RERL) is an extension of the successful partnership between the government and UNDP in the renewable energy sector to consolidate the best practices from REDP and continue scaling up access to energy. As with REDP this new programme is being implemented by the government’s Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC).

The RERL project started in April 2011 to as an extension of the successful partnership between the government and UNDP in the renewable energy sector to consolidate the best practices from REDP and continue scaling up access to energy.

The RERL programme is prepared as a transition programme for the period of two years (2011-2012) with anticipation that full-fledged RERL programme will be finalized and brought into implementation in the beginning of 2013 for next 3-5 years. The full-fledged programme plans to link with the Government of Nepal’s harmonized Rural Renewable Energy Programme starting from mid-2012.  Current RERL programme is targeted to complete the GON/AEPC and the WB’s joint commitments for achieving the targets of 4.25 MW electricity generations through implementation of MHVEP.  The programme further supports the GON/AEPC to consolidate the best experiences/practices of REDP and use them as best practice models in future RE programmes in Nepal.

The specific strategic objectives of the two year RERL programme includes:

• To support GON/AEPC’s commitment to meet the WB target of 4.25 MW (of which 4 MW is remaining to be installed by 2012)
• To provide policy advisory support to enable GON/AEPC to take lead on programme implementation since/beyond 2012
• To support GON/AEPC/renewable energy sector to come up with new institution structures  as per the need of the country to deliver decentralized energy systems and services
• To promote sustainable livelihoods through energy-linked value chain enterprises which preferentially encourage participation of women and marginalized communities and focus on enhancing social equity by helping raise their income levels through access to markets, resources, technologies, information and available financing options.
• To strengthen/promote innovative climate proofing energy solutions as appropriate