Integrated Renewable Energy for Rural Communities: Planning Guidelines, Technologies and Applications

Nasir El Bassam · Preben Maegaard

jun 2004 · Elsevier

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More than two billion people worldwide have currently no access to grid electricity or other efficient energy supply. This is one third of humanity and the majority live in rural areas. The productivity and health of these people are diminished by reliance on traditional fuels and technologies, with women and children suffering most. Energy is the key element to empower people and ensure water, food and fodder supply as well as rural development. Therefore access to energy should be treated as the fundamental right to everybody. Renewable energy has the potential to bring power, not only in the literal sense, to communities by transforming their prospects. This book offers options that meet the needs of people and communities for energy and engage them in identifying and planning their own provision. It describes updated renewable energy technologies and offers strategies and guidelines for the planning and implementation of sustainable energy supply for individuals and communities.

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Prof. Dr. N. El Bassam is the founder and director of the International Research Centre for Renewable Energy (IFEED), Germany, India and USA; Chairperson at World Council of Renewable Energy (WCRE) Scientific Advisory Board, Federal Association of Regenerative Mobility, and Vice President of the Climate Protection Agency North Germany; Chairman of the Working Group Sustainable Rural Energy Network (SREN), FAO, United Nations, Rome; ); Program Head of the Projects wind energy and Concentrating Solar Power for Power (CSP) Supply and Seawater Desalination Middle East and North Africa (DESERTEC). He coordinates the Centre activities, technology transfer of and the co-operation in national and international organizations (UN, EU, and Club of Rome), the integration and application of renewable energy resources available in various regions for electricity, water and food supply with aims of empowering the countryside. El Bassam is well-known as Poverty Researcher, in this context he initiated the strategy and project “Empowering Urban Cities and Rural Habitats in Africa which considered as a Marshal Plan for sustainable economic development and combating Poverty, migration, and Depopulation of urban cities and Rural Communities worldwide. He contributes as an editor in the journals: International Journal “Sustainability Science, Springer Scientific Publishing Services; Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (AJEAS). El Bassam published 12 books, authored numerous publications, and received several awards

Dr. Maegaard is Director of the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy, an institute for the development and implementation of renewable energies located in Denmark. The center has, under his leadership, provided transfer of renewable energy technology to many countries. Dr. Maegaard was appointed the first president of the World Wind Energy Institute, first president of the World Wind Energy Association, and has served as a Renewable Energy Adviser to the President of Mali. For over three decades, Dr. Maegaard has been a director, organizer, and speaker at numerous international seminars, workshops and conferences. He has authored numerous reports, books, and articles in Danish, English, German and Japanese on renewables and sustainable development.