Opinion

Is electricity a solution to biomass use in rural areas?

Energy is one of the more basic human needs and the trends in energy utilization are major indicators of the economic growth of a particular country/society. In the absence of conventional energy sources, the unsustainable use of biomass fuels is often the only resort. Governments such as South Africa have a dual mandate in protecting the environment while striving to improve the livelihoods of all people specifically previously disadvantaged communities. Targeting the most affected communities, the SA government has embarked on a rural electrification program aimed at subsidising electricity for low-income households in rural communities who did not have access to electricity. Sampson Mamphweli questions how effective this strategy is.

Biomass fuels in their unprocessed form comprise of wood, straw, animal dung, vegetable matter, agricultural waste, while processed biomass include methane, charcoal, sawdust and alcohol produced from fermentation processes. In developing countries they can account for 35%, on average, of primary energy needs, while in some areas, this rises to as much as 90% with marked effect on the environment. In the Vuwani district at Limpopo province in South Africa overexploitation of wood for fuel compounded by population growth and poverty has led to deforestation, local extinction of plant and animal life and a rapidly vanishing source of fuel for communities such as this.

In Vuwani, the main uses of energy in the area are livelihood activities such as cooking, heating and lighting and to a lesser extent energy for brick making and pottery. Before the start of the electrification program only 6% of the households had access to electricity and 5.8% of them used it for both cooking and lighting while the remainder only utilising this energy for lighting. The majority of households relied on biomass fuels for cooking and paraffin for lighting. An assessment of the district's energy needs showed that approximately 70% of the households needed 0.4 tonnes of biomass resources per month for cooking, 62% of these households needed 0.08 tonnes of biomass resources per month to burn their bricks and pottery and 76% of households needed 0.0003 tonnes of biomass resources per month for heating before rural electrification. That constituted an average of 0.37 tonnes of biomass resources needed per household per month.

After electrification, researchers found that the demand for biomass energy resources dropped insignificantly. The number of households relying on biomass resources for cooking remained at 70% but there was a slight decrease in the volume of biomass resources needed per household per month from 0.4 tonnes to 0.386 tonnes. The number of households relying on biomass resources for brick and pottery dropped from 62% to 40% and the volume of biomass resources needed per household per month for heating bricks and pottery dropped from 0.08 tonnes to 0.03. The number of households relying on biomass for heating their houses decreased from 0.0003 tonnes to 0.00019 tonnes per household per month.

Researches found that while electricity for lighting was readily adopted, electricity for cooking was not as readily or frequently adopted and may be attributed to these end-users having become accustomed to biomass fuels for cooking. Contributing factors include low socio-economic status, low levels of education and the cost of electricity.

Because of the adaptation of rural communities to biomass energy resource utilization, the demand for these resources rises and will continue to do so in the face of dwindling biomass. Possible solutions include:

• Establishment of social forestry programs
• Environmental awareness programs
• Development and use of energy efficient technologies that use biomass resources, these include biomass gasification technologies, highly efficient biomass stoves etc.
• Building houses that encourage passive solar heating
• Building integrated photovoltaic and passive solar houses
• Subsidizing electricity for households living below the poverty line

These solutions would require active involvement of the communities affected, incorporation of alternative and sustainable energy sources, educators and conservationists to communicate and demonstrate energy conservation and energy efficienct practices that could allow the sustainable use of such resources.

- Article by Sampson Mamphweli, Fort Hare Institute of Technology, University of Fort Hare edited by Science in Africa. The author wishes  acknowledge Professor Saidi (formerly with Venda University) for his encouragement during this study.

More information:

 Useful reading: 

Winteringham, 1992 Energy use and the environment, Lewis publishers, Boca Raton.

Hall and Rosillo-calle, 1991, http://www.teriinn.org/info/biblio/effects.htm, last visited February 2002.

Hall, 1991 Organization, structure, process and outcome, Chapman and Hall, Paramount.

For more information contact: Sampson Mamphweli
Fort Hare Institute of Technology
University of Fort Hare
Private bag x 1314
Alice
5700
Tel: 040 602 2311/2086
E-mail: smamphweli@ufh.ac.za 

Science in Africa - Africa's First On-Line Science Magazine

Copyright Science in Africa, Science magazine for Africa CC. All Rights Reserved

Terms and Conditions