Renewable energy policies for sustainable development in Cambodia

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Abstract

In line with sustainable development path, electrification with the aid of renewable energy resources is a key element for the developing countries. Cambodia with almost 85% rural population is one of the countries with high renewable energy resources but at the same time has a low installed capacity. In the context of this study, the potential and status of sustainable energy generation in Cambodia are studied in detail. The renewable energy policies, strategies and programs are investigated, and the implemented projects based on the determined policies are reviewed. Considering the existing governmental policy of enabling 70% of rural households to reach reliable electricity services by 2030, the renewable energy resources are found as the best option for rural electrification. The economic, regulatory, financial and institutional barriers are shown as the main cause of the significant deviation between the potential and installed capacity. It is essential to overcome the challenges in order to achieve a sustainable development in rural electrification in Cambodia.

Introduction

Cambodia with the population of around 15 million is located in Southeast Asia with two main seasons. The wet season from May to October and dry season from October to April can be considered as the main seasons in Cambodia [1]. Around 85% of population are living in rural areas and their primary livelihood is agriculture [2], [3]. Based on the world bank report, the GDP per capita in Cambodia is reported to be around USD874 in the year 2011 [4], which placed the country as the 16th lowest income country in the world [5]. Although the conventional energy resources of Cambodia are considerable such as fuel wood, coal, forestry, fossil fuel, petroleum, oil and natural gas reserve [6], [7], [8], [9], these energy resources are limited. In order to cover the energy demand, it is essential to use other energy resources that are cheaper and sustainable, like renewable energy resource.

Towards development and augmentation of electricity generation previous studies focused on renewable energy potential to employ these energies in a feasible way and also to utilize technical methods for conservation of energy. In the context of the present study the renewable energy policies, strategies and programs in Cambodia are investigated and the implemented projects based on the determined policies are reviewed.

Section snippets

Conventional energy resources

Among the various natural energy resources in Cambodia, diesel and heavy fuel oil are mostly used to produce the needed electricity of the country. Fuel wood, which is exploited from the natural forest, is one of the natural energy sources in Cambodia. More than 80% of the population depend on agricultural activity for their livelihood; thus the usage of wood and agricultural residues as the energy sources is significant. The average required fuel wood for one family is 5.27 t/year in Kampong

Power generation and power consumption

Based on the electricity authority of Cambodia, the percentage of households who had access to the electricity in 2008 were reported to be 16.41% and around 73% of them are located in Phnom Penh area [22], [23], [24]. The total expected generation output for Cambodia is estimated to be 2640.7 GWh in 2016 and the generation for different cities of Cambodia is plotted in Fig. 1.

In meeting the growing demands of electricity, different strategies can be addressed. Among them, the National

Energy policies

Limited financing, inadequate policies and weak institutional frameworks are the main problems that have encompassed rural electrification in most developing countries. Therefore, governments have made various attempts in financing and facilitating the increase in the level of rural electrification in the last two decades [26]. Generally, several encouraging steps have been taken towards greater liberalization in developing renewable energy. The most important priority is providing domestic

Institutions

The main renewable energy institution is associated with the Royal Government of Cambodia and it is divided into three institutions of electricity of Cambodia (EAC), ministry of industries, mines and energy (MIME) and ministry of economic and finance (MEF). Among them, MIME is in charge of the energy issues in Cambodia. Generally, it develops energy policies, strategic plans and standards (technical, safety, and environment). Cambodia's electricity market is divided into four institutes (IPP,

Implemented projects

Considering the potential capacity of hydropower, the current utilization of this natural source is relatively low. Based on the JICA Master Plan Progress report in 2005, capacity of the two installed hydropower projects is reported as 13 MW that includes 12 MW in Kampong Speu and 1 MW in Ratanak Kiri. The first mentioned project was implemented in 2002 and the second one was started in 1993. A 200 kW hydropower project in Mondul Kiri and the Kamchay HEPP with the capacity of 180 MW are under

Challenges of renewable energies and electrification development

The common issues in electrification development with the renewable energies can be considered in one of the three main categories of (I) economic, (II) legal and regulatory and (III) financial and institutional. The existent barriers facing the renewable energy development in Cambodia are listed in Table 12 based on the determined classification.

Lack of static data on electricity consumers and suppliers and business cost for project development, operation and maintenance create barriers to

Conclusion

In investigating the potential capacity of renewable energy resources in electricity generation, it is found that Cambodia is one of the richest countries in natural energy resources among the developing countries. The solar, wind, biomass and hydropower energy resources are studied in the context of this study and it is estimated that renewable energy resources of Cambodia can generate up to 67,388 GWh energy per year. This energy is almost three times of the total energy consumed by the whole

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge the University of Malaya for financial support. This research was carried under the High Impact Research Grant with project no. UM.C/HIR/MOHE/ENG/22 scheme and Project no. CLMV 53-02-03-1080.

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