[en] The supply and use of energy have never been static subjects. Scientifically, technologies change; some are entirely new and others result in improved function and efficiency. Economically, the primary resource base changes, with some resources being indigenous and therefore relatively secure, while other resources are imported with significantly less security. Structurally, supply organizations vary, ranging from nationalized utilities to privately owned companies. Environmentally, all energy processes have impacts; some are heavily polluting, some cause effectively no pollution, and most have less polluting alternatives. The United Nations is concerned with all these aspects of energy supply and use, as its agencies seek to encourage responsible sustainable development and the reduction of poverty. These aims are not new, but circumstances change; for instance, we now have to consider urgently the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change. This book reviews the activities of several UN and other agencies in the area of energy and sustainable development in Africa. We are aware of the changing global scene and are concerned that our actions free of historic impediments and conscious of new concepts. Thus, we are aware of the global trend towards liberalized utility suppliers working within regulated frameworks. We appreciate the rapid improvements in electronic communication, which are transforming the news media, education, business etc, and enabling the emergence of new industrial processes, dependent on automated machinery and data acquisition. We are waiting for increased development opportunities related to international carbon abatement and climate change mitigation. The aim is to strengthen opportunities for reliable and affordable energy supply, both to urban and rural populations. This is most likely to occur with clear strategies and regulated policy, which will allow enterprising industrial and commercial firms to plan for innovation and sustainable development. The various chapters of this book relate to the views and activities of different UN agencies and development banks co-operating within UNEA (UN-Energy/Africa). Each chapter therefore focuses on different, but related, themes. In total, a broad spectrum of issues is addressed, including the need for an effective commercial and industrial development policy, a favourable environment for energy end-users and an appropriate regulatory framework, successful approaches to enhance energy access for economic and human development, and structural changes in the context of sustainable development and economic planning, as well as specific challenges for energy investment in the present global situation and the potential contribution of nuclear power in the energy sector. Whatever its focus, each agency understands that energy is important, not as an end in itself, but rather as a means to tackle the major developmental challenges that exist in Africa today. Our task is to be positive and support development, with the expectation that employment and wealth income will increase and that the resulting economic structures and products will be beneficial, both locally and nationally. Having an international perspective, the UN sees the advantages of harmonized policies and methods, which we hope will be accepted by individual countries. There are obvious advantages in such harmonization, which facilitates increased trade between countries, e.g. in electricity and gas, and in commonly labelled and standardized goods and professional employment. Regarding the scale and operation of technical development worldwide, there are two complementary trends. The first is towards diversified and less-intensive industry, and the second is towards greatly enhanced national and international communication. The former appears as a coalescing of what has been called 'appropriate technology', with centralized large-scale production (as, for instance, with microgenerated and embedded electricity supply), while IT and networks, electronic control systems and remote monitoring demonstrate the second trend. These technology trends are certainly transferable, for they are already universal, although dissemination and scaling up need a coherent approach supported by harmonized policies and strategies to address the challenges in strategic partnership. By recognizing these trends, energy policy in Africa can avoid the mistakes made elsewhere and launch itself into a sustainable future. This book is intended to explain the energy-related work of UN and other world agencies, with particular reference to Africa. We hope that you will enjoy it and be stimulated by it

[en] A rapid increase in the world's population, the gradual exhaustion of fossil fuels and serious ecological problems are making developed countries more attentive to the utilization of renewable energy sources, mainly biomass, which should form part of the global energy mix during the twenty-first century. The economies in transition have been experiencing a transformation of their political, economic and social systems and a modernization of their industry, including the energy industry. Energy supply in the transition economies is based on coal, oil, gas and nuclear power. Of the renewable sources, only hydroelectric power is utilized to any significant extent. The forest biomass resources of these economies are quantified in this paper. The economies in transition have a big potential for biomass from forestry and timber industry wastes and agricultural wastes that are not being utilized and could become a source of energy. So far, biomass is used as a source of energy in only small amounts in the wood and pulp industries and as fuelwood in forestry. The governments of some countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) have energy plans through the year 2010 that aim to develop renewable energy sources. Economic, institutional, technical and other barriers to the development of renewable sources and their utilization are analysed in this paper and some remedies are proposed. In cooperation with countries such as Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the United States of America and others, which have achieved remarkable results in the utilization of biomass for energy, it would be possible for the transition economies to quickly develop the technological know-how needed to satisfy the demand for energy of approximately 350 million inhabitants. (author)

[en] Biomass is organic matter produced in a renewable and sustainable manner, by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Biomass can be used as an energy resource to produce heat, power and transport fuels. The integration of biomass into a national energy supply mix may confer a number of local and national benefits. These benefits include displacement of imported fossil fuels with concomitant savings in foreign exchange, abatement of greenhouse gas release and possible reductions in levels of air pollution. The present case study evaluates the status of energy development in the Philippines to determine current levels of biomass utilization and the potential to further develop and use indigenous biomass energy resources. The study is based on: (a) Discussions held with representatives of the various agencies involved with biomass production and energy planning and programme implementation, during a brief mission to the Philippines; (b) An evaluation of current conversion technologies and facilities with the potential to fully utilize available biomass resources in domestic, industrial and power generation sectors; (c) An analysis of existing biomass production data, energy policies and plans, and projections for energy supply and consumption supplied by the relevant agencies and government departments of the Philippines. The Department of Energy is responsible for development and management of national energy policy and programmes. They have prepared an energy policy and projections for energy supply and consumption for the period 1996 to 2025. Non-conventional energy resources have been given a high priority, and a separate programme has been developed under the administration of the Non-conventional Energy Division of the Department of Energy. Total energy consumption in 1994 was estimated at 198 million barrels of fuel oil equivalent (BFOE). Imported fossil fuels accounted for 58% of the total energy supply in 1994, biomass being the most important indigenous fuel source (28%). The Department of Energy projects total energy demand to increase to 1,392 million BFOE, with imported fossil fuels continuing to supply 58%. Although biomass energy consumption is projected to rise to 181 million BFOE by 2025, the proportion of supply is expected to fall to 13% because of increased production of conventional indigenous energy resources. A detailed analysis of selected biomass energy resources has been completed. It is concluded that the commercial potential exists to produce heat and power from residues of the sugar, rice and coconut industries. In addition, wood and wood wastes will remain a major energy resource for households and rural industry. (author)

[en] Income growth and industrialization in developing countries is driving their economies towards the use of secondary energy forms that deliver high efficiency energy and environmentally more benignant-uses for biomass. Typical of these secondary energy forms are electricity, distributed gas systems and liquid fuels. This trend suggests that the hitherto separate pathways taken by biomass energy technology development in developing and industrialized countries will eventually share common elements. While in the United States and the European Union the majority of the bioenergy applications are in medium- and large-scale industrial uses of self-generated biomass residues, the characteristic use in developing countries is in rural cook-stoves. Increasing urbanization and investment in transportation infrastructure may allow increasing the operational scale in developing countries. One factor driving this trend is diminishing individual and household biomass resource demands as rural incomes increase and households ascend the energy ladder towards clean and efficient fuels and appliances. Scale increases and end-user separation from the biomass resource require that the biomass be converted at high efficiency into secondary energy forms that serve as energy carriers. In middle-income developing country economies such as Brazil, secondary energy transmission is increasingly in the form of gas and electricity in addition to liquid transportation fuels. Unfortunately, the biomass resource is finite, and in the face of competing food and fibre uses and land constraints, it is difficult to substantially increase the amount of biomass available. As a result, development must emphasize conversion efficiency and the applications of bioenergy. Moreover, as a consequence of economic growth, biomass resources are increasingly to be found in the secondary and tertiary waste streams of cities and industrial operations. If not used for energy production, this potential resource needs to be disposed of in some other manner owing to its negative environmental impacts. The development cycle for biomass thus moves in a stepwise fashion. The first step is the gathering of wood and agricultural residues by families for cooking, heating and lighting. Next, investments are made in anaerobic digesters, which simultaneously address energy, environmental and hygiene needs, and in efficient wood- and straw-fired stoves, which improve the indoor air environment and reduce the depletion of forests for fuelwood. The final stage is the village-scale operation of digesters and gasifiers that provide distributed gas to households and enterprises not necessarily associated with agricultural or forestry activities. At this stage, industries that process biomass into pulp, paper, lumber and sugar (from sugar cane) can move from being merely self-sufficient in process heat needs to becoming significant exporters of electrical energy into the regional and national grids. The key to all these advances is the availability of highly efficient, environmentally sound and economically viable conversion technologies. (author)

[en] The purpose of this paper is to provide a broad overview of the environmental impacts associated with the production, conversion and utilization of biomass energy resources and compare them with the impacts of conventional fuels. The use of sustainable biomass resources can play an important role in helping developing nations meet their rapidly growing energy needs, while providing significant environmental advantages over the use of fossil fuels. Two of the most important environmental benefits biomass energy offers are reduced net emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly CO₂, and reduced emissions of SO₂, the primary contributor to acid rain. The paper also addresses the environmental impacts of supplying a range of specific biomass resources, including forest-based resources, numerous types of biomass residues and energy crops. Some of the benefits offered by the various biomass supplies include support for improved forest management, improved waste management, reduced air emissions (by eliminating the need for open-field burning of residues) and reduced soil erosion (for example, where perennial energy crops are planted on degraded or deforested land). The environmental impacts of a range of biomass conversion technologies are also addressed, including those from the thermochemical processing of biomass (including direct combustion in residential wood stoves and industrial-scale boilers, gasification and pyrolysis); biochemical processing (anaerobic digestion and fermentation); and chemical processing (extraction of organic oils). In addition to reducing CO₂ and SO₂, other environmental benefits of biomass conversion technologies include the distinctly lower toxicity of the ash compared to coal ash, reduced odours and pathogens from manure, reduced vehicle emissions of CO₂, with the use of ethanol fuel blends, and reduced particulate and hydrocarbon emissions where biodiesel is used as a substitute for diesel fuel. In general, the key elements for achieving the full benefits of biomass energy are the establishment of sustainable practices for obtaining biomass supplies and the use of efficient biomass conversion technologies. (author)

[en] The objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of biomass to energy issues and opportunities in Central America. In this region, made up of seven countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), the biomass sector has the potential to play a crucial role in alleviating the environmental and development predicaments faced by all economies of the region. This paper assesses the available biomass resources at the regional and country levels and gives an overview of the current utilization of biomass fuels. It also describes the overall context in which the biomass-to-energy initiatives are immersed. At the regional level, biomass energy consumption accounts for more than 50% of total energy consumption. In regard to the utilization of biomass for energy purposes, it is clear that Central America faces a critical juncture at two levels, both mainly in rural areas: in the productive sector and at the household level. The absence of sustainable development policies and practices has jeopardized the availability of biomass fuels, particularly wood. Firewood is an important source of energy for rural industries such as coffee processing, which is one of the largest productive activities in the region. This paper comments on some of the most successful technological innovations already in place in the region, for instance, the rapid development of co-generation projects by the sugar cane industry, especially in El Salvador and Guatemala, the substitution of coffee husks for firewood in coffee processing plants in Costa Rica and El Salvador and the sustainable use of pine forests for co-generation in Honduras. Only one out of every two inhabitants in Central America now has access to electricity from the public grid. Biomass fuels, mainly firewood but also, to a lesser extent, other crop residues such as corn stalks, are the main source of energy for cooking and heating by most of the population. (It is foreseen that by the end of the century an even lower proportion of the population-only one out of three Central Americans-will have access to the national grid). Finally, the paper recommends some actions to enhance alternative options for the conversion of biomass resources to energy in order to address the ever-increasing demand for power in the region. A key recommendation is a biomass technology assessment initiative that would facilitate the effective transfer of technology within the region. (author)

[en] Advanced biomass energy systems, including new biomass resource enhancement technologies, should be developed only where compelling situations for investors or communities exist to economically do so. These situations, or minimum viable operating conditions, are assessed from a pragmatic perspective. They are determined by specific circumstances and divergent interests that take time to define and integrate. Customized solutions are necessary and can change quickly with geography and market circumstances New technologies offer more options but are not necessarily the best. The example of energy crop technology is used to demonstrate the interdependencies that exist between new resource enhancement technology and biomass energy systems operations. The ability to genetically increase the energy density of energy crops is compared to other enhancement measures such as increasing the number of tonnes grown per hectare-year, reducing costs per tonne and improving other characteristics. Issues that need to be considered include significant knowledge gaps, lack of commitments in R and D, specificity of conversion system requirements, handling capabilities and opportunity costs. Broader biomass procurement strategies, which may be more important than resource enhancement technologies, are discussed. Biomass cost-supply is utilized as a strong analytical feature to evaluate the effectiveness of biomass procurement strategies and new biomass production technologies. Some past experiences are reviewed. Cost-supply is assessed from the perspective of the whole biomass energy system to expose the interdependencies between production operations, conversion scale and technologies, and community markets and service. Investment limits, for example, may be as important a determinant as the cost-efficiency of a new technology, which, in turn, affects biomass cost-supply-quality requirements. The cost of new technologies can then be compared to the changed performance of the overall system. (author)

[en] Environmental change and sustainable development present a challenge for all nations. Developed countries have to dismantle and change historic practice before progressing, whereas developing countries can move directly to new technology and new institutional frameworks. This chapter seeks to identify trends in energy supply and use that both improve sustainability and provide opportunities for commerce and industry. Worldwide experience is studied for application in sub-Saharan Africa (abbreviated as 'Africa' henceforward). Such application is central to UNIDO's programmes in energy and environment. These programmes consider both the supply and the demand sides, by the provision of energy for industry, use of renewable energy resources and improved industrial energy end-use efficiency. Key factors are de-linking intensity of energy use from economic growth and reducing environmental damage from energy supply and use The background for this chapter is 'Sustainable Energy Regulation and Policy-making for Africa', a set of 20 training-modules produced for UNIDO and REEEP (the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership). The modules will be used by governments, regulatory offices and industry in Africa for stimulating policy and commercial development in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Of particular relevance is the general trend to more liberalized electricity supplies, as regulated within new legislation. Within each country, institutional frameworks can be changed and improved for the benefit of both citizens and commerce alike. There is a common trend worldwide to include institutional mechanisms for the increase of renewable energy generation and the efficient use of energy within regulatory legislation, e.g. (Harrington et al., 2007). Government involvement and ministerial regulation is most common for electricity. In all countries, the introductory stages of electricity supply have been strongly influenced by national and local government action and ownership. However, once initiated, an established market economy, involving many competitive private companies, should produce electricity at less cost to the consumer and the nation, than if wholly owned and operated by government. Such improvement requires a carefully constructed legal framework, especially because there are many monopoly aspects of electricity supply. The administration and control of the legal objectives requires jurisdiction, usually by the appointment of a Regulator with a specialist and independent staff. Thus, hand-in-hand with the liberalization of energy supplies is the requirement for regulation. Since 1990, liberalization of energy supply, especially of electricity, has been introduced throughout Europe. The main actions have been at national level; consequently, individual national policies and methods dominate. Nevertheless, having an integrated European electricity grid encourages commonality throughout Europe. Associated with liberalization is the growth of private company participation and hence the need for legally enforceable regulation by a Regulator. The pattern of development in Europe is similar to many other world regions including North America. However, European electricity supply is older and the population more concentrated than in most other regions, therefore the opportunity for structured liberalization came first in Europe. Consequently, the European experience is important for formulating policy elsewhere, including Africa. However, without competition from several private companies for each contract, liberalization may well fail to deliver the improved services and reduced energy tariffs expected; chapter three considers such experience. Coincidentally with the trend to energy supply liberalization, has come the need for renewable energy supplies and increased energy efficiency. This change is promoted by several factors, including: sustainable development, new technology, reduced emissions and climate change. New technology enables improvements in the efficient generation and use of energy, thus bri nging financial savings and reduced environmental impact. Renewable energy, e.g. sunshine (solar), wind or biomass, utilizes local resources with no fossil fuel costs, with acceptable emissions and with enhanced security of supply. The turnover for European business in energy efficiency and renewable energy is now of the order of 25 billion euro per year, associated with about 150,0004 full-time-equivalent jobs. Such economic activity provides stimulation for similar industrial and commercial development in Africa. The need to improve energy-supply security and the necessity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, have led to legislation and targets to increase the efficient use of energy both by good management practice (which is cheap) and by targeted capital expenditure (which usually has rapid payback time, perhaps less than a year and usually within three years). Using energy more efficiently is highly profitable for business

[en] Increasing interest in biomass energy conversion in recent years has focused attention on enhancing the efficiency of technologies converting biomass fuels into heat and power, their capital and operating costs and their environmental emissions. Conventional combustion systems, such as fixed-bed or grate units and entrainment units, deliver lower efficiencies (<25%) than modem coal-fired combustors (30-35%). The gasification of biomass will improve energy conversion efficiency and yield products useful for heat and power generation and chemical synthesis. Advanced biomass gasification technologies using pressurized fluidized-bed systems, including those incorporating hot-gas clean-up for feeding gas turbines or fuel cells, are being demonstrated. However, many biomass gasification processes are derivatives of coal gasification technologies and do not exploit the unique properties of biomass. This paper examines some existing and upcoming technologies for converting biomass into electric power or heat. Small-scale 1-30 MWe units are emphasized, but brief reference is made to larger and smaller systems, including those that bum coal-biomass mixtures and gasifiers that feed pilot-fuelled diesel engines. Promising advanced systems, such as a biomass integrated gasifier/gas turbine (BIG/GT) with combined-cycle operation and a biomass gasifier coupled to a fuel cell, giving cycle efficiencies approaching 50% are also described. These advanced gasifiers, typically fluid-bed designs, may be pressurized and can use a wide variety of biomass materials to generate electricity, process steam and chemical products such as methanol. Low-cost, disposable catalysts are becoming available for hot-gas clean-up (enhanced gas composition) for turbine and fuel cell systems. The advantages, limitations and relative costs of various biomass gasifier systems are briefly discussed. The paper identifies the best known biomass power projects and includes some information on proposed and planned projects worldwide. The main incentives, such as greenhouse gas reduction, the expanded use of various biomass sources and improved efficiency, are often insufficient to overcome barriers to the development and commercialization of advanced conversion systems and even to the introduction of conventional biomass-fired combustors for heat and power. Site characteristics, handling and transport costs and the availability and reliability of fuel feedstocks are major considerations in selecting system designs. In transferring biomass conversion technology to developing countries, these factors and others, such as sufficient data on the composition of the indigenous biomass, economics and training, are important. Successful transfer, however, will depend on a facilitator from the developing country and a technology champion from the developed country. (author)

[en] The first part of the paper presents the common perception of technology transfer as a trade relationship rather than a systematic approach to establish a complex technological capacity in a given field. It aims to correct this misperception by introducing some other ideas: (a) the need to support the people, adjust the relevant organizations and establish the capacities to provide the products and services; (b) the typical life cycles of technologies from the initial concept to the final stages of transfer and sustainable dissemination; (c) the needs and expectations of the groups targeted by the technologies for biomass energy utilization. The second part of the paper discusses one example of successful technology transfer: the use of large biomass-burning stoves for food preparation in public institutions and private restaurants in East Africa. The third part of the paper highlights two non-technological barriers to the transfer of biomass energy technologies: (a) weak market forces and business interests and a large number of State activities and projects and (b) conflicting interests of end-users, craftsmen, private and public project partners, which can threaten the success of the attempted technology transfer, even after local adaptation. Finally, suggestions are made for overcoming some of these problems. (author)