The handover took place at a function organized at the Nepal Resident Mission on Monday 9th June 2014. The system was installed in Dhaubadi village of Nawalparasi district, Nepal, in December 2011 under ADB’s regional technical assistance (RETA) for Effective Development of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems in Asian Rural Areas for which the AEPC was the implementing agency in Nepal.
The $3.8 million RETA was part of ADB’s ‘Energy For All’ initiative that supports efforts to increase access to energy in remote rural areas. The RETA also covers Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives.
“The Project is now providing electricity services to 46 rural households of Dhaubadi” said Kenichi Yokoyama, ADB’s Country Director for Nepal, speaking at the handover ceremony. “This was the pilot for the hybrid wind and solar system in Nepal. The success of this project has demonstrated that it is indeed viable to provide reliable energy access to rural Nepal through solar wind hybrid systems as one of the clean energy options.”
Mr Yokoyama added that the lessons learned from the project will be very useful in scaling up the systems across Nepal, as well as in other developing member countries of ADB. The project is based on an ‘energy systems’ planning approach incorporating two sets of 5kW wind turbines complimented by 2kWp of solar PV panels in order to meet the village’s 43.6 KWh per day electricity demand. This in turn has helped the villagers in Dhaubadi to reduce their dependence on firewood and providing power for cooking and cleaning and lighting so that children can study after dark.
The transfer document was signed by Yongping Zhai, Director Energy Division, South Asia Department, ADB and Ram Prasad Dhital, Acting Executive Director, AEPC which marked the official handover of the wind-solar hybrid system from ADB to AEPC starting on 13 June 2014. ADB is now supporting the Nepalese government in their efforts to scale up similar initiatives in other rural areas of the country under the proposed SASEC power system expansion project. This project will see the addition of an off-grid component with more than 4.0 MW of mini hydro and 500 kW mini grid based solar or solar and wind hybrid system.
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