Caught between necessity and feasibility

Arjun Bedi, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Luca Tasciotti

ISS Working Papers - General Series from International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague

Abstract: Dependence on biomass, especially wood, to meet domestic energy needs raises several socio-environmental concerns. In contrast, cattle manure, which may be used to generate biogas, is considered a cleaner and cheaper source of energy. Despite the existence of several initiatives to promote biogas, systematic analyses of the effects of such initiatives are limited. This paper provides such an analysis. We use data from rural Rwanda to examine the effects of access to bio digesters on energy-related expenditures and consumption of traditional fuels. We find that participation in Rwanda’s National Domestic Biogas Programme leads to substantial reductions in firewood use and yields large savings. However, a cost-benefit analysis reveals that the attractiveness of participating in the biogas programme is hampered by a long payback period.

Keywords: Energy policy; renewable energy; biogas; Rwanda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2014-07-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ems:euriss:51698

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