Optimization strategies of micro-hydropower systems to supply remote isolated communities
Author:
Tapia Córdoba, AlejandroDate:
2019-07-23Abstract:
Universal access to energy constitutes one of the biggest challenges that humanity has to face in the coming years. Modern societies are strongly dependent on electricity, which is required to run factories, processing plants, transport systems and health services, among many others. It plays such an important role in fulfilling the basic human needs that it has become a clear indicator of economic and social well-being. Although access to energy has kept increasing during the last decades, along with world population and industrialization, the highly unequal distribution in the patterns of energy use around the world are worrisome. Nowadays, more than one billion people still lacks access to electricity. These people are especially located in rural areas of developing countries and rely on traditional fuels or wood for the main household needs. This not only relegate living conditions at the low subsistence level, but also constitutes a big barrier to their social and economic development. In this context, social and political pressure to electrify deprived areas in developing countries has increased, growing consensus among international development partners. Several initiatives, such as the United Nation (UN) Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), have established the route and the objectives to target the universalization of energy access.
Universal access to energy constitutes one of the biggest challenges that humanity has to face in the coming years. Modern societies are strongly dependent on electricity, which is required to run factories, processing plants, transport systems and health services, among many others. It plays such an important role in fulfilling the basic human needs that it has become a clear indicator of economic and social well-being. Although access to energy has kept increasing during the last decades, along with world population and industrialization, the highly unequal distribution in the patterns of energy use around the world are worrisome. Nowadays, more than one billion people still lacks access to electricity. These people are especially located in rural areas of developing countries and rely on traditional fuels or wood for the main household needs. This not only relegate living conditions at the low subsistence level, but also constitutes a big barrier to their social and economic development. In this context, social and political pressure to electrify deprived areas in developing countries has increased, growing consensus among international development partners. Several initiatives, such as the United Nation (UN) Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), have established the route and the objectives to target the universalization of energy access.