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Abstract: Solar PhotoVoltaic (SPV) based systems have been widely accepted technology for rural electrification in developing countries. The standalone SPV home lighting system has increasingly been popular among rural households, while SPV mini-grid supply system is being promoted for rural electrification schemes. This study uses data from household survey to explore the impact of household characteristics on the preference for electrical energy from SPV systems. Econometric evidence shows heterogeneity in behavioural pattern for these two SPV systems. The flexibility in use and cost of systems might explain this difference. Household characteristics such as monthly household income, household size, occupational status of household head, number of room and type of house significantly influence household’s decision for SPV standalone home lighting systems. For SPV mini-grid supply household’s income and monthly expenditure on kerosene are significant predictors. The result reported in this paper might be a valuable input for policy makers to frame right policy mix with regard to provide subsidy on rural electrification programmes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Promoting renewable energy in India has assumed great importance in recent years in view of high growth rate of energy consumption, high share of coal in domestic energy demand, heavy dependence on imports for meeting demands for petroleum fuels and volatility of world oil market. A number of renewable energy technologies (RETs) are now well established in the country. The technology that has achieved the most dramatic growth rate and success is wind energy; India ranks fourth in the world in terms of total installed capacity. India hosts the world''s largest small gasifier programme and second largest biogas programme. After many years of slow growth, demand for solar water heaters appears to be gaining momentum. Small hydro has been growing in India at a slow but steady pace. Installation of some of the technologies appears to have slowed down in recent years; these include improved cooking stoves (ICSs) and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. In spite of many successes, the overall growth of renewable energy in India has remained rather slow. A number of factors are likely to boost the future prospects of renewable energy in the country; these include global pressure and voluntary targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction, a possible future oil crisis, intensification of rural electrification program, and import of hydropower from neighbouring countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Creating provisions for domestic lighting is important for rural development. Its significance in rural economy is unquestionable since some activities, like literacy, education and manufacture of craft items and other cottage products are largely dependent on domestic lighting facilities for their progress and prosperity. Thus, in rural energy planning, domestic lighting remains a key sector for allocation of investments. For rational allocation, decision makers need alternative strategies for identifying adequate and proper investment structure corresponding to appropriate sources and precise devices. The present study aims at designing a model of energy utilisation by developing a decision support frame for an optimised solution to the problem, taking into consideration four sources and six devices suitable for the study area, namely Narayangarh Block of Midnapore District in India. Since the data available from rural and unorganised sectors are often ill-defined and subjective in nature, many coefficients are fuzzy numbers, and hence several constraints appear to be fuzzy expressions. In this study, the energy allocation model is initiated with three separate objectives for optimisation, namely minimising the total cost, minimising the use of non-local sources of energy and maximising the overall efficiency of the system. Since each of the above objective-based solutions has relevance to the needs of the society and economy, it is necessary to build a model that makes a compromise among the three individual solutions. This multi-objective fuzzy linear programming (MOFLP) model, solved in a compromising decision support frame, seems to be a more rational alternative than single objective linear programming model in rural energy planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]