The Energy Situation in Central Asia: A Comprehensive Energy Review Focusing on Rural Areas

Abstract

The northern part of the globe is dominated by industrialisation and is well-developed. For many years, the southern part of the world (South Asia, Africa etc.) has been a target of research concentrating on access to energy (mainly electricity) in rural regions. However, the Central Asian region has not been a focus of energy research compared to South East Asia and Africa. Despite plentiful domestically available energy resources, the energy supply in Central Asia is very unevenly distributed between urban and rural areas. Almost half of the total population of Central Asia lives in rural areas and there is a lack of access to modern energy services to meet primary needs. To analyse the energy situation (i.e., electricity, heating, hot water consumption, cooking, etc.) in rural Central Asia, this paper reviews residential energy consumption trends in rural Central Asian regions as compared to urban areas. Furthermore, the paper illustrates the potential of renewable energies in Central Asia. To perform the study, a qualitative comparative analysis was conducted based on a literature review, data, and statistical information. In summary, the presented article discusses the rural energy situation analytically and provides in-depth insights of Central Asian energy infrastructure.

Energy Profiling of a High-Altitude Kyrgyz Community: Challenges and Motivations to Preserve Floodplain Ecosystems Based on Household Survey

“…The winter temperatures range from about −4 • C to −6 • C in the lowlands and from −25 • C to −30 • C in the mountainous. Hence, high-altitude settlements with long periods of cold weather conditions face additional challenges because most of the energy is used for house heating rather than cooking [5]. Figure 4 represents the Ak-Tal community and house arrangement.…”

“…Among Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan is the country most vulnerable to climate change. Over 60% of the rural Kyrgyz population directly depends on natural resources for their livelihoods [5,6]. The high reliance on firewood usage negatively impacts the riparian forests, and therefore, the local ecosystem becomes unbalanced [7].…”

“…As mentioned earlier, local people exploit the ecosystem/surrounding environment to meet their energy needs because they do not have access to modern energy services. By contrast, the country is blessed with plentiful renewable energy resources, mostly unexploited because of the lack of resources and infrastructure [5]. The recent theoretical development identified that locally available renewable energy resources could be employed to ensure a sustainable energy supply in Kyrgyzstan.…”

“…Such a sustainable solution can indeed be helpful to reduce the burden on the local ecosystem [13,14]. This is how the reliance on the ecosystem and environment can be reduced [5].…”

On the Optimization of Electrical Water Heaters: Modelling Simulations and Experimentation

“…Due to the aggravation of an energy crisis, Scientists recommend exploiting renewable sources of energy [1][2][3] and to simultaneously manage the energy consumption as a last step to reduce the severity of this problem [4][5][6][7]. The energy management field is under continuous development nowadays due to the diversity and complexity of components involved in modern thermal systems.…”