Reducing energy poverty in small rural communities through in situ electricity generation

Abstract

Energy is key in achieving sustainable societies. There have been great efforts towards improving energy access worldwide. Despite the advances in energy access, energy poverty remains a major problem in many parts of the world, particularly in rural communities. Modern energy, in particular electricity, can help rural communities develop through improving education and health. During the last two decades, there have been improvements on bioenergy technological innovations, e.g. electricity generation from bioenergy from residual biomass from several agricultural crops in biorefineries. Most research has focussed on large biorefineries, with limited research on small-scale gasifiers’ location and contribution to energy poverty. This paper is aimed at assessing technological options to generate electricity in situ from biomass to reduce energy poverty of rural communities. This is done using four analysis methods: (1) crops availability data; (2) poverty and marginalisation data; (3) electricity provision/distribution; and, (4) GIS/Geographical latitude and longitude to locate municipalities in Mexico. The results shows that the generating potential for electricity using residual biomass with gasifiers could improve the welfare of almost 10 million people communities using residual biomass from crops harvested in such communities. This research provides location solutions on the best places to locate small-scale biorefineries. The research also provides systemic analysis to reduce energy poverty through in situ electricity generation using cheap accessible small plant technologies and biomass as raw material, as well as their location. Generating electricity in a decentralised way through agricultural residual biomass can help lift rural communities from poverty and improve their well-being, and, thus, make societies more sustainable.