Energy access remains a challenge for many countries, as recognized by sustainable development goal 7 of the United Nations Development Programme. Although the Myanmar government has set a target of 100% electrification by 2030, less than half of the households are currently connected to the national grid. To expedite electrification, decentralized approaches should be considered. Mini-grids are an effective alternative that can fill the gap between a solar home system and the national grid; however, many of the existing mini-grids in Myanmar are powered by diesel generators. Diesel fuel is significantly more expensive in rural areas than in urban areas due to high transportation costs. Although mini-grids powered by solar photovoltaics and batteries are cost-competitive with diesel generators, the deployment of renewable energy-based mini-grids is slow. In this study, we analyzed the barriers to mini-grid deployment and prioritized the barriers. We conducted a questionnaire survey with stakeholders using the analytic hierarchy process to identify the prioritization of each barrier factor. The K-means clustering method was used to determine tendencies and showed that there was no single, dominant solution. Our results confirm the difficulty of mini-grid deployment and suggest multi-pronged approaches that go beyond economic considerations.
The increased use of renewable energy is imperative as a countermeasure to climate change. As with conventional electricity generation technologies, public acceptance of renewables is an important issue, and willingness to pay (WTP) is a widely used indicator to assess such public attitudes. Unfortunately, the literature to date mostly covers developed countries, with few WTP surveys in developing countries. Tackling climate change is an urgent issue for these developing countries; therefore, understanding of public attitudes toward renewables in developing countries is crucial. This study conducted the first survey on WTP for introducing renewable energy in Myanmar. Although Myanmar boasts abundant renewable energy resources, including solar power and biomass in addition to large-scale hydro plants, its resources are not being properly utilized to generate electricity. This study surveyed WTP for power generation by solar photovoltaics, small hydropower, and biomass facilities. The results showed the highest WTP for solar power (USD 1.92) with 10% share in the energy mix, and lower WTP for biomass and small hydropower electricity generations (USD 1.13 and USD 1.17, respectively). Careful public communication is thus crucial for expanding biomass and small-scale hydro power plants.
Energy access is still a challenge for many countries, as demonstrated by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. Though the government of Myanmar set a target of 100% electrification by 2030, currently only less than half of households are connected to national grids. To accelerate electrification, decentralized approaches should be considered more. Mini-grids are an effective option that can fill the gap between a solar home system and a national grid. However, many of the existing mini-grids in Myanmar are powered by diesel generators. In rural areas, diesel fuel is much more expensive than in urban areas because of transportation cost. Under this condition, mini-grids powered by solar photovoltaics and batteries are already cost-competitive with diesel generators. Nevertheless, the deployment of mini-grids powered by renewable energy is still slow. In this study, we analysed barriers to the deployment and the prioritization of these barriers. We conducted a questionnaire survey with stakeholders using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to identify the prioritization of each barrier factor. To see tendencies, we used k-means for clustering results. The results showed that opinions were divided among stakeholders. There is no single silver bullet for the mini-grids and overcoming the barriers needs steady work.
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