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025 Pico-hydropower innovation and capacity building program
Project partner
LIRE Laos
Project status
completed
Project description
Laos has a big potential for hydropower, because of its large mountainous areas. Over the past years, a lot of attention has gone out to developing large hydropower projects in tributaries of the Mekong river and there are even plans for mainstream dams. Although these projects can yield substantial benefits for the country, these projects usually do not benefit the poor people in remote areas. Moreover, they can cause large environmental and social problems, because of e.g. deforestation and resettlement.
Small and very small hydropower has received much less attention from the government, multilateral organizations and NGOs. Yet, pico-hydropower (<5 kW) is very common in remote rural areas, completely market-driven and provides many people with a source of electricity. An estimated 60.000 low-head pico-hydropower units provide electricity for about 90.000 households, making it the most important renewable energy technology in the country. Yet, there are challenges of using this technology, such as coping with low quality hardware, risks of electrocution and breaking of electronic devices and light bulbs. Many problems have been overcome by innovation of actors in the supply chain of pico-hydro: users, village technicians, shopkeepers, traders and producers. The market is currently focused on individual users. However, there are opportunities for 1) scaling up and improving 2) the quality and safety and 3) efficiency and reliability of pico hydro technology through existing and potential new market channels.
The project will increase the awareness about 1) upscaling and improving 2) quality and safety and 3) effiency and reliability of pico-hydropower technology. By empowering the users of pico-hydropower technology, they are hopefully able to influence the supply chain from bottom-up. Shops are a likely place to distribute the information (upon buying a unit). Since the shops represent an important node in the supply chain, they will be especially targeted to make them aware about the difference in quality and safety of the pico-hydropower units they sell. Furthermore, options to stimulate entrepreneurs willing and able to improve the quality and safety or able to offer new services will be targeted. Outcomes of the project will be published and brought under the attention of the government and development organizations to show the impact of this pro-poor electrification strategy.
Learning questions
The principle questions to be answered by the project are:
| How can the users be best involved to participate in the improvement of pico-hydropower safety, installation and use? |
| The end-users are a key player in the pico-hydropower sector in the Lao PDR. Since there is virtually no support from the government or other organisation, the decision to invest and install pico-hydropower is entirely on the side of the end-users. All current adaptations and innovations have been introduced by end-users and the way to use and install the units has been spread by word of mouth. During the project, the team has visited many different villages and end-users. By taking them to the installation site and confronting them with potential solutions (some of which already in use by others), we have obtained valuable information on how to improve the current pico-hydropower use. The end-users should be involved by showing different ways of installation and better or additional products and let them spread those by word of mouth and copying. As many end-users are not educated on the use and dangers of electricity, awareness needs to be raised on those aspects. Unfortunately, end-users do not have strong influence on the type of turbines available at shops, because the quality differences are not easy to distinguish. Therefore, it is difficult to involve end-users to increase the quality without having support from the shopkeepers. |
| What are the innovations within the pico-hydropower supply chain? |
For a detailed description, we would like to refer to deliverables 1 till 5. Following is a short overview:
- Extended shaft. One of the most important innovations is the extended shaft. This enables the end-users to install their units in a ‘lying’ position.
- Sharing units with several households. Most people share their unit with up to 5 other households. Usually, these people are related and do not pay for this. Instead, they often help with the maintenance. Sharing complicates the load controlling process and various solutions for this have been documented.
- Innovative civil works. The civil works consist of digging of canal, making a small weir, construction to support a ‘standing’ unit, a draft channel or a combination of these options. Most of the materials are locally available at zero or little costs to the end-user. Construction can take up to a few days and can be labour intensive to maintain. The different styles vary a lot between villages or even among individual installations
- Extensive distribution network. Pico-hydropower units and related products (cables, light bulbs, switch boards) can be found in all district town visited for the project, usually in more than one shop. Shops buy their supplies from Vietnamese and Chinese traders, from larger shops at provincial level or directly across the border.
- Some ‘branding’ can be found amongst different units. However, it is still unclear for many end-users which units to buy |
| How can these innovations be exploited by local entrepreneurs? What kinds of support does this require? |
- Entrepreneurs can be the point of information to disseminate good practices and safe and quality installations. At the moment, shop owners hardly provide any information and manuals (in Chinese) are scarcely available. If shop owners would get business development support and would be provided with information, they could catalyse the spread of innovations in the pico-hydro supply chain. Simultaneously, they could sell additional products when deemed trustworthy by their customers and by selling complementary products that lead to safer and easier use (switchboards, better cables, load controllers).
- At village and district levels, people could be trained to provide help in setting up appropriate and quality civil works, such as been observed in some villages. For example, good draft channels/tubes and safe in-house installations can be part of small entrepreneurial activity as people would be willing to pay for more stable and additional electricity. In order to support this kind of development, trainers can be trained to actively disseminate these good practices and instruct people on how to improve their existing installations. |
| Which tools and capacity building within LIRE are needed to facilitate supported pico-hydropower entrepreneurs? |
Over the past 6 months, LIRE has developed general capacity to run an EASE project and defined further capacity needs, linked to the second phase of the project. The base, project manager, technical staff and the necessary administrative tools, are in place, but more capacity will be needed in order to 1) provide training and support to shop owners and 2) to train technical advisors that can go out in villages. Besides the capacity to develop materials, it is also necessary to equip the LIRE EASE staff with more understanding of pico- en micro-hydropower installations, implementation models and operational models. A visit to Vietnam, to one of LIRE partners, would be great to get this knowledge. Simultaneously, this trip can be used to visit the market in Hanoi and chase down Vietnamese traders.
Over the past 6 months, LIRE has developed general capacity to run an EASE project and defined further capacity needs, linked to the second phase of the project. The base, project manager, technical staff and the necessary administrative tools, are in place, but more capacity will be needed in order to 1) provide training and support to shop owners and 2) to train technical advisors that can go out in villages. Besides the capacity to develop materials, it is also necessary to equip the LIRE EASE staff with more understanding of pico- en micro-hydropower installations, implementation models and operational models. A visit to Vietnam, to one of LIRE partners, would be great to get this knowledge. Simultaneously, this trip can be used to visit the market in Hanoi and chase down Vietnamese traders. |
| How can the experiences of the LIRE and ETC MFS Energy Access Programme be used for further work in 2009 and 2010? |
| The first EASE project within LIRE was a great opportunity for LIRE to get familiar with the EASE way of working and to build capacity to support market-based energy solutions for the poor in developing countries. Apart from the EASE partner meeting in Tanzania, not much knowledge exchange has been going on. This should change in 2009 and 2010, when LIRE can share its information and methodologies within the network and give well-founded ideas and suggestions for adaptations of the EASE program. Support for or introduction of pico-hydropower as appropriate renewable energy technology for the poor seems worthwhile to try in other countries with hilly/mountainous terrain. |
Downloads
1 - Technography of pico-hydropower in the Lao PDR
2A - Progress report pico-hydropower innovation and capacity
2B - Pico-hydropower in Xieng Khouang province
3 - Pico-hydropower in Luang Prabang province
4 - Pico-hydropower workshops in Xieng Khouang
7 - Monitoring protocol pico-hydropower project
More information
Contact us for more information at: ease@etcnl.nl
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