Wind power for remote communities in Asia gets ADB support

Wind offers a reliable and carbon emission-free source of electricity and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing support to expand its use throughout remote communities in Asia, helping to alleviate poverty and improve lives.

Technical assistance grants totalling $3.87 million from ADB’s confessional funds for the Deployment of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems in Asian Rural Areas will lay the groundwork for utilizing wind power to enhance access to electricity in poor rural communities.

Nearly one billion people in Asia and the Pacific are still trapped in poverty with no access to electricity and a large number of them live in remote windy areas where it is both difficult and costly to connect to power grids. Wind power offers a practical alternative provided key challenges are met, which include the high up-front investment costs, difficulties in accessing finance, and the need to attract private sector participation.

By 2020, ADB estimates that small wind power systems will serve at least 2.5 million poor people and avoid about 1.25 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. The technical assistance work will examine ways to overcome current hurdles, paving the way to replicate and scale-up deployment of small wind power systems around the region.

It aims to develop financing mechanisms that can boost the viability of small wind power systems, including financial leasing and the mobilization of grant assistance.

It will also examine public-private partnerships and build-operate-transfer models, along with ways of utilizing carbon credits, to boost the feasibility and sustainability of wind power.

“The technical assistance will explore innovative approaches to reduce costs of wind power equipment, reshape financing instruments, encourage public-private partnerships, displace uses of biomass and fossil fuels, and strengthen the capacity of national and local groups to implement and maintain renewable energy and electricity access projects,” said, ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department Senior Investment Specialist Kangbin Zheng.

Pilot activities will be carried out in remote mountainous communities, deserts and grasslands, and ocean islands, which will provide models for replication in similar areas.

Policy recommendations will be provided to developing member countries on the transfer of low carbon technologies and creation of regulatory and business environments to maximize the use of wind and other renewable energy.

The technical assistance will help boost regional cooperation for developing clean energy solutions, and reinforce broader actions designed to mitigate the negative impact of global warming and climate change.