In a ceremony held in Islamabad, U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson announced that the U.S. Government will support a $55 million (4.5 billion rupees) infrastructure rehabilitation and construction program in South Waziristan. This support is part of the strategic agreements worth $899 million (75 billion rupees) signed by the Governments of the United States and Pakistan on September 30, 2009. Grant funding will be provided directly to the FATA Secretariat as it works with the Frontier Works Organization, the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), and other local agencies to rebuild roads, develop water infrastructure, and improve power systems.
December 2009 | Pakistan
The USAID Energy Team assists the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs to improve the energy situation in hospitals. After conducting assessments, the Energy Team focused on setting up pilot installations in the country; bringing rigor and consistency to power back-up system installations. Once the installations completed, the impact on health services and laboratory tests was immediate. The good results obtained are encouraging and show a direct correlation between having access to electricity and the quality of services in the hospitals that have benefitted from this pilot project.
Learn more about USAID’s work to improve energy systems in Haiti at www.poweringhealth.org. Learn more about PEPFAR at www.pepfar.gov.
December 2009 | Haiti
On December 8, more Afghans in the capital city of Kabul gained access to locally produced power from the USAID-funded Tarakhil Power Plant. Engineers activated the plant’s third and final power block, rendering the plant fully capable of producing the 105 megawatts of energy it was built to deliver.
December 2009 | Afghanistan
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo presided over the groundbreaking of a biomass power plant on December 7, 2009, that will bring clean energy and improved rural livelihoods to the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. In the first phase of a four-phase plan to build distributed biomass plants, ASEA One, the project developer, intends to build four plants that will bring 30 megawatts of generating capacity to the region, which has experienced a chronic energy shortfall. As well as having the potential to reduce the Philippines’ carbon emissions by 100,000 metric tons a year, the plants will provide needed income to local farmers, as the plants will use agricultural waste from surrounding farms as feedstock. ASEA One was able to launch the project after closing on the first $30 million of an expected $75 million in financing for phase one, thanks to the mentoring and facilitation of the USAID-supported Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN). PFAN, which is managed in Asia by USAID/RDMA’s ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program, is a multilateral, public-private partnership initiated by the Climate Technology Initiative in cooperation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
December 2009 | Philippines
USAID and the Philippines’ Department of Energy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to identify promising clean energy projects in the Philippines and help those projects secure financing. Under the MOU, the USAID-supported Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) will provide support to renewable energy and clean energy technology projects identified by the Department of Energy in its database. PFAN connects clean energy developers with sources of financing. In 2009 alone, PFAN has set up networks in China, Indonesia and the Philippines and mentored and supported 40 projects in Asia. The MOU will allow substantial expansion of this network and of the market for locally-developed clean energy projects in the Philippines.
December 2009 | Philippines
On December 8, 2009, USAID’s US-China Partnership for Environmental Law met with senior officials of China’s State Electric Regulatory Commission (SERC) to address key elements of electric power resource planning, wholesale electric power markets reform, and potential ‘smart-grid’ developments. As China’s attention to greenhouse gas emissions from power plants has grown, SERC’s jurisdiction and practices in regulating wholesale electric power sales and markets has become increasingly important. The discussions highlighted the dual use of both market mechanisms and integrated resource planning to shape electricity futures, including the emerging results of pilot programs for ‘environmental dispatch’ in five Chinese provinces. As part of an ongoing long-term engagement by Vermont Law School and the Regulatory Assistance Project with senior SERC officials, the roundtable will enhance the economy, reliability, and environmental sustainability of China’s electric power sector.
December 2009 | China
On December 15, 2009, USAID’s US-China Sustainable Buildings Partnership (SBP) reached agreement with Kunming, one of China’s fastest-growing second-tier cities with a population of nearly 6 million, to provide an energy and emissions reduction strategy for the buildings sector. As part of this agreement, being managed through the Kunming Economic and Construction Bureaus, SBP will provide training, tools, and technical methodologies to assist buildings in reducing energy consumption. SBP estimates 10% annual energy savings across the entire building stock could result in annual emissions reductions of 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to removing 138,766 cars from the road each year.
December 2009 | China
The USAID ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program (CDCP) and C-Quest Capital, LLC (CQC) signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2008 to cooperate in the development of innovative financing mechanisms for energy-efficient lighting projects in India. Under the agreement, USAID’s CDCP will work with CQC to identify projects that can use carbon financing mechanisms to increase the rate of adoption of energy-saving lighting in India. The two organizations are presently working to implement a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh State that will use carbon financing to fund installation of 700,000 CFLs, with an ultimate target of 10 million CFLs in the state. In another project, CDCP is working with CQC to develop a nation-wide CFL project with the Indian Ministry of Railways that will install 2.6 million CFLs in an estimated 650,000 households. When fully developed, these two projects will result in cumulative reductions of 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
December 2009 | India
On December 4, 2009, the US-China Sustainable Buildings Partnership (SBP) launched a company-wide program with Super 8 Hotel to improve the sustainability performance of its China portfolio, which will total 210 hotels by the end of 2010. Launch activities included site assessments for 8,000 square meters of hotel space in Beijing and initiation of portfolio-wide data collection. SBP estimates 10% annual energy savings could yield annual emissions reductions of 12,653 metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the electricity used to power 1,643 US homes for one year.
December 2009 | China
On December 19, 2009, a multi-agency team from the Royal Thai Police arrested 10 people for selling protected wildlife and seized hundreds of live animals at six temples in Southern Thailand’s Songkhla Province, near the Malaysian border. The arrests and seizures wrapped up a wide investigation into the illegal sale of birds and tortoises begun in 2009 during on-the-job training provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agents under the USAID-funded Support Program for the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN). The bust illustrates the effectiveness of practical on-site training and the ability of local authorities to adopt new investigative techniques to counter wildlife crime.
December 2009 | Thailand
In Bangladesh, Grameen Shakti is training rural women to be solar technicians and enabling green entrepreneurs through a highly successful microcredit program. USAID supports Grameen Shakti with US$2 million in funding to focus on the economic empowerment of rural women by training them to install and maintain photovoltaic Solar Home Systems (SHS), Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) and Biogas plants.
November 2009 | Bangladesh
Under the South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/Energy) Partnership Program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), nine executives from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka met in Albany, New York and Washington, D.C., September 21-25, 2009, to participate in a South Asia Regional Regulation Partnership Executive Exchange. The exchange was organized and conducted by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) to broaden the participants’ understanding of best practices.
November 2009 | South Asia
The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Energy Economics (CEE), at the request of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will assess the state of the oil and gas sector in the west African country of Ghana.
November 2009 | Ghana
Having worked as distinct and separate projects since their establishment, this workshop brings together system planners from the Black Sea and Southeast Europe regions, to discuss system planning issues, the potential for trade and exchange; and the legal, regulatory and technical obstacles to increased trade and exchange of electricity. The workshop is intended to highlight priority projects as well as issues and obstacles to transmission system development and increased trade and power exchange.
Established and supported by USAID in cooperation with the United States Energy Association, the Southeast Europe Cooperation Initiative Transmission Planning Project (SECI since 2000) and the Black Sea Regional Transmission System Planning Project (BSTP since 2004) have united transmission system planners in Southeast Europe and the Black Sea region through commonly developed and updated models of their respective high voltage networks. The models have been used to forecast network upgrades required to support increased trade and exchange of electricity within the regions and between them. The members of the SECI project include transmission system operators from: Albania; Bulgaria; Bosnia Herzegovina; Croatia; Kosovo; Macedonia; Montenegro; Romania; Serbia and Turkey. The members of the BSTP are transmission system operators from: Armenia; Bulgaria; Georgia; Moldova; Romania; Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
November 2009 | Europe and Eurasia
On November 5, 2009, the US-China Sustainable Buildings Partnership (SBP) officially launched collaboration with Savills, the largest property manager in Hong Kong and China, to improve the energy performance of its approximately 50 million square meter portfolio in China. Launch activities included site assessments for 784,000 square meters of building space in Guangzhou and training for 58 building managers, representing 4 million square meters of space, in Beijing. SBP estimates that 10% energy reductions across the entire Savills portfolio could yield approximately $185 million in annual energy cost savings and avoid emissions of 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from 266,072 passenger vehicles. SBP has future site assessments and trainings planned on a rolling basis with Savills.
November 2009 | China
Visiting experts from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held consultations on air quality management challenges with officials from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BJEPB) and the Beijing Environmental Protection Institute on November 2-6, 2009, in Beijing. The consultations, organized by USAID’s ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program, covered environmental policy, rule-making and setting of standards, air quality monitoring, and improved enforcement approaches. The U.S. and Chinese experts also discussed permitting of power plants and control technologies for air emissions, toxics and greenhouse gases (GHG). The experts conducted a technical review of BJEPB’s laboratory facilities and test methods. BJEPB is rolling out an aggressive program over the next two years to develop a comprehensive inventory of sources, control emissions from diesel engines, and initiate a regional cap-and-trade system for key pollutants including GHG. BJEPB has requested technical assistance from USAID to support these objectives.
November 2009 | China
Under the South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/Energy) Partnership Program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), nine executives from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka met in Albany, New York and Washington, D.C., September 21–25, 2009, to participate in a South Asia Regional Regulation Partnership Executive Exchange. The exchange was organized and conducted by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) to broaden the participants’ understanding of best practices.
November 2009 | Publication
On October 29 and 30, 2009, USAID’s Guangdong Environmental Partnership (GEP) launched a series of energy efficiency summits for technicians and managers from 13 factories in Guangdong Province, China’s “factory to the world.” The two-day training covered key concepts, case studies, and best practices in industrial energy efficiency in lighting, water use, heating and cooling, heat recapture, fuel switching, and financing. All 13 participating factories are located in Sanjiao Township, one of three pilot communities that have joined the GEP’s community-based energy efficiency initiative. Sanjiao’s government officials, business owners, civic leaders, and educators joined together and identified industrial energy efficiency as a priority for their community. Following community-wide discussions, these 13 factories committed to leading the local industrial sector in meeting or exceeding their individual and collective energy efficiency targets in the coming year. Over the next two months, subsequent trainings will include financial analysis and external financing for energy efficiency, in-factory site visits and demonstration projects, and individualized strategic planning for energy management. The summit series is being conducted in conjunction with the Environment, Health and Safety Academy at Sun Yat-sen University, and will be refined and expanded to the wider factory community in Sanjaio in 2010.
October 2009 | China
The Asia Lighting Compact (ALC), a USAID-supported regional partnership to promote widespread adoption of energy-efficient lighting across Asia, was launched in Hong Kong on October 29, 2009. The ALC brings together national lighting associations, international organizations and standards bodies, and some of the largest lighting companies in the world. The initial focus of the ALC will be to improve the quality of energy-saving Compact Florescent Lamps (CFLs) by working to harmonize regional quality standards, and by setting up a system for certifying and marking quality CFLs that will be recognized across Asia. Governments are increasingly promoting CFLs as a way of reducing carbon emissions, but in Asia, up to half the CFLs sold are substandard, negating their energy-saving benefits. A transition to higher-quality CFLs could reduce Asia’s carbon emissions by 2.4 million tons a year – the equivalent of lighting 2.8 million U.S. homes for the same period. USAID’s ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program and the Australian Government supported the establishment of the ALC as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP).
October 2009 | Hong Kong
Ten projects from some of China’s top clean-energy businesses and entrepreneurs were showcased at the USAID-supported China Clean Energy Investor Forum in Beijing on October 21, 2009. These projects, the culmination of a business plan competition, have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 22.6 million metric tons over the project lifetimes, the equivalent of removing over 4 million cars for a year. Nearly 200 representatives of banks, investment firms and governments from China and Asia joined clean energy experts and companies at the Forum and the subsequent Asia Clean Energy Regional Seminar on October 22, which focused on policy barriers to the expansion of clean energy financing in Asia. The ten finalists seek a total investment of $375 million for a range of clean energy projects, including biomass, biogas, solar, mini-hydropower, and electric vehicles. The Forum and Seminar were both organized by the Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN), a multilateral public-private partnership that is supported by USAID and other international funders and managed in Asia by USAID’s ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program.
December 2009 | China
Delegates from Arizona Public Service (APS) traveled to Amman, Jordan to meet with their counterparts at the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) of Jordan. Ross Hagan, Director, Energy Office, USAID/Jordan welcomed the delegation and made opening remarks to commence the second executive exchange visit for NEPCO. The exchange visit was conducted October 3-11, 2009 in Amman, Jordan, was aimed at improving transmission system reliability, improving transmission system planning and operations, and accelerating the integration of renewable energy into Jordan’s transmission grid.
October 2009 | Jordan
USAID initiated the new Afghanistan Clean Energy Program (ACEP) in October 2009. ACEP will focus on off-grid renewable energy generation, demand side management and energy efficiency. The program will provide technical assistance to Afghanistan policy-makers seeking to promote alternative renewable energy such as micro-hydro, solar and wind energy.
October 2009 | Afghanistan
The USAID Energy Team responded to a request by the USAID Senegal mission to assist its education program. USAID/Senegal is supporting the Government of Senegal to construct new middle schools around the country, and some of the sites are not currently connected to an electric grid. USAID/Senegal seeks a strategy on how to meet the energy needs of these schools, in order to ensure a quality education for students and inform future USAID programming in the education sector. Energy Team staff, together with a local and international expert on renewable energy, conducted a two-week assessment trip to collect data and provide recommendations.
October 2009 | Senegal
USAID developed two strategic partnerships this week in the Philippines to help catalyze financing for clean energy businesses in that country. The Development Bank of the Philippines is the country’s seventh largest bank and has allocated $400 million for investments in environmental and energy projects. Endesa Carbono S.L. is a leading carbon finance company and works with clean energy project developers to facilitate access to carbon financing. These two partners join the USAID-supported Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) with the aim of structuring financial packages for clean energy entrepreneurs in the Philippines. PFAN is a multilateral, public-private partnership initiated by the Climate Technology Initiative in cooperation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In addition to the Philippines, PFAN is active in other Asian countries including China, India, and Indonesia.
September 2009 | Philippines
18 senior officials from India’s Ministry of Power and from leading Indian utilities toured several power plants in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic this week to closely review best practices in power plant renovation and modernization (R&M). The study tour was organized by USAID’s ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program (ECO-Asia CDCP). In recent years, these European power plants have made substantial improvements in energy efficiency by implementing R&M programs which have led to substantial fuel savings and a lowering of emissions. India has declared a goal of renovating nearly 30,000 MW of aging power plants to realize similar outcomes. The delegation also held high-level discussions with leading suppliers of power plant technology in Europe – including Rafako, Alstom, RWE and Skoda – to market India’s R&M market potential. This activity is part of ECO-Asia CDCP’s ongoing efforts to work with utilities in China, India, and ASEAN to develop strategies to scale up investments for the renovation of coal-fired power plants. The work in India is supported by the US Department of State under the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP).
September 2009 | India
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan took a critical step to establish the new national electricity corporation, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), laying the foundation for commercialization in the country’s energy sector that will lead to improved services for the Afghan people. DABS is owned by the Government of Afghanistan, but will introduce private-sector practices into its business operations, such as setting new salary rates for employees and more efficient billing and collection practices.
September 2009 | Afghanistan
Graduates of Kabul Polytechnic University now have the opportunity to become better energy-sector engineers thanks to an innovative new two-year training program. Through classroom and on-the-job training in Afghanistan and India, participants will gain the skills and practical knowledge necessary to become skilled utility engineers able to operate and maintain Afghanistan’s power sector infrastructure.
September 2009 | Afghanistan
The U.S. Agency for International Development contributed $6 million to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) trust fund facility, administered by the World Bank. The EITI trust fund facility helps countries with technical and capacity building assistance to implement principles of resource revenue transparency. The initiative calls for public disclosure and verification of oil, gas, and mining company payments to host governments and disclosure of the host government's revenue from industry.
September 2009
The Energy Conservation and Commercialization (ECO) Program was signed between the Government of India (GOI) and USAID in January 2000 under a bilateral agreement with the objective to enhance commercial viability and performance of Indian energy sector and to promote utilization of clean and energy-efficient technologies in the sector.
September 2009 | Publication
President Hamid Karzai opened the first 35 MW block of a 100 MW diesel power plant in Kabul on August 5, significantly expanding power to the capital and surrounding area. Minister of Energy and Water Ismail Khan and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry also attended the ceremony. The U.S. Government-funded Tarakhil Power Plant will provide power to approximately 200,000 residents in Kabul in its first phase. When finished later this year, the plant will provide power to more than half a million people.
August 2009 | Afghanistan
Opportunities to finance clean energy projects drew more than 100 industry experts and investors to the Indonesia Clean Energy Investor Forum held in Jakarta in June 2009. The forum showcased projects from a competition sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Private Finance Advisory Network (PFAN). PFAN is a multi-lateral public-private partnership that was established by the International Energy Agency's Climate Technology Initiative and is managed by USAID in Asia.
August 2009 | Indonesia
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Midland Refineries Co. opened an Information Technology (IT) Training Center at Daura Refinery today aimed at strengthening the management skills of professionals in the energy sector.
August 2009 | Iraq
On March 11, Albania’s Minister of Economy, Trade, and Energy, Genc Ruli and CEZ representative, signed a $102 million strategic partnership agreement, privatizing 76 percent of the shares of Albania’s energy distributor, OSSH. USAID provided technical assistance to the Government of Albania, particularly on the key regulations that will govern the new system.
July 2009 | Albania
Sri Lanka will host the first energy efficient lighting Center of Excellence in South Asia, thanks to funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Regional Center for Energy Efficient Lighting (RCEEL) will serve as a research hub to develop new lighting technology to be used in Sri Lanka and South Asia. The Sri Lanka-based center will bring public and private enterprises together to focus on energy efficient lighting that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, be more cost-effective, increase consumer accessibility to energy, and promote energy efficiency throughout the region.
July 2009 | Sri Lanka
Ten years ago most urban Vietnamese rode bicycles, but over the last decade rapid industrialization has contributed to a sharp rise in the use of motorized vehicles. These vehicles create emissions containing lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter – and cause significant health impacts. In 2001, USAID began working with the Ministry of Transportation to improve urban air quality. The government formed a partnership with the private sector and, in less than a year, had phased out leaded gas nationwide. The phase-out of leaded gasoline has reduced lead exposure for millions of city dwellers – particularly the poor, who tend to live along congested roads.
July 2009 | Vietnam
Krishnappa is a small farmer in a rural district of the south Indian state of Karnataka. He received assistance from a USAID-supported program to switch 3.25 acres of his 6.5 acre plot from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. This improvement reduced the use of his electric water pump from 84 hours to 25 hours a week.
July 2009 | India
Liberians who live, study, or work outside the limited electric grid of the capital, Monrovia, do not have affordable, reliable light. Less than two percent of rural areas and about ten percent of the urban capital area have modern energy sources. Renewable energy is emerging to fill the need for power, allowing the rebuilding country to leapfrog over polluting fuels into “green” energy using the country’s abundance of sun and water.
June 2009 | Liberia
In Paraísopolis, the second largest ‘favela’ (slum) in São Paulo, almost all the households and businesses had illegal electricity connections, were exposed to dangerous network and wiring conditions and did not pay for service. Households and businesses consumed high amounts of electricity – on average 325 kWh/ month – due to the very poor condition of household appliances and electrical equipment and a lack of price signal to encourage consumers to use electricity wisely. In late 2006, USAID, the International Copper Association (ICA), and AES Eletropaulo, the electricity distribution company serving São Paulo, embarked as partners on an ambitious project in São Paulo, Brazil to test an integrated approach to slum electrification and loss reduction. This project aimed to reduce electricity losses from theft and non-payment while bringing more reliable and safer electricity service to its residents and dramatically reducing their electricity consumption to affordable levels.
June 2009 | Brazil
PoweringHealth.org is a web based resource designed by USAID’s Energy Team with the objective of disseminating information and best practices on the provision of reliable energy services to developing country health facilities.
Over the years, significant effort and funds have been dedicated to providing energy services to rural health facilities – with a particular focus on expanding the vaccination cold chain. The global push to deliver antiretroviral drugs and services to HIV-positive patients worldwide, have introduced new demands for electricity in health facilities with little or no access to reliable power.
June 2009 | Toolkit
Some Harvard Business School students now have the opportunity to volunteer as unpaid consultants at USAID offices around the world during their winter break.
More than 100 Harvard students applied for 11 available slots in a program developed by the Agency’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade.
June 2009
Energy is a need. Somehow, it has everything to do with all the other sectors. The environment is in trouble because of energy. Everything else, from the health of the ordinary man to the pesewa he can earn, all depend, in a very mysterious way, on energy.
There have been discussions about hydro, nuclear, solar, wind and oil & gas as sources of energy. Seldom does anyone mention biomass which includes wood fuel. The Kumasi Institute of Energy Technology and Environment is one organisation that seeks to address the issue of biomass. Its Director, Mrs. Harriette Amissah-Arthur, laments that the nation has not paid proper attention to biomass.
May 2009 | Ghana
The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has just approved a grant for US$1.65 million to subsidize part of the costs of electricity connection and wiring for inhabitants of the Shivajinagar slum in Mumbai.
Up to 26,000 slum households or approximately 104,000 slum dwellers are expected to eventually benefit from the scheme, either through new electricity connections or regularization of existing connections.
May 2009 | India
On April 6, electricity flowed for the first time in Dodarak village in Nangarhar Province. Supplied by a new 60 KWH micro-hydropower plant funded by USAID, the electricity will improve the villagers’ quality of life and open the door for new business opportunities. Currently, the plant provides 1,200 residents with electricity, allows local shops to sell cold food and drinks, and has the capacity to serve 600 additional households in neighboring villages.
May 2009 | Afghanistan
The USAID-funded National Capacity Development program, locally known as “Tatweer,” brought together 22 MoO and 14 MoE managers from Baghdad, Basra, Babil, Mosul, Kirkuk and Diwaniyah provinces. The six-month Program Manager Cycle (PMC) training was the latest in a series of programs to modernize the skills of public officials and encourage cooperation between the ministries in an effort to improve delivery of services to the Iraqi people.
May 2009 | Iraq
The lack of access to clean energy – and often energy in any form – makes life extraordinarily difficult for many women in South Asia. Household chores become far more labor-intensive, taking time from women that could be better spent on family life or income-generating activities. And daughters may be taken out of school to help their mothers with chores, virtually guaranteeing the perpetuation of poverty for future generations of women.
The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) South Asia Regional Initiative/Energy (SARI/Energy) program is working to change this situation through its South Asia Women in Energy (SAWIE) activity. Formed in April 2008, SAWIE brings together women energy sector professionals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to understand, identify and develop sustainable approaches to providing low-cost efficient energy to poor women and men in rural and urban areas throughout the region.
May 2009 | South Asia
Energy conservation efforts are expanding in Pakistan, resulting in the promotion of energy audits for commercial enterprises, consumer awareness campaigns to highlight the importance of efficiency in household appliances, the introduction of low-energy applications in new building construction, and renewed attention to power losses between transformers and household connections. Recurring power shortages have made energy conservation increasingly important. Some estimates indicate that 1,500 megawatts per year could be saved with an effective national campaign.
April 2009 | Pakistan
Empowering Agriculture: Energy Options for Horticulture is a guidebook developed to assist USAID, its partners, and the developing country clients whom they serve with practical, application-specific information about energy supply options and ways to improve energy efficiency in horticulture operations.
March 2009 | Publication
New Delhi—S. Padmanaban, a senior energy advisor with USAID, received the Energy Professional Development Award Dec. 14, 2008, for his contributions to the field of energy efficiency in India.
March 2009 | India
Powering Tourism provides information to help tourism professionals understand and evaluate the range of options for meeting their off-grid energy needs, highlighting efficient and sustainable use of energy. The guide provides a seven-step approach to guide the reader through the process of creating a reliable and affordable energy system by working with staff and visitors, equipment vendors, installers, financial institutions, and energy service providers. Powering Tourism illustrates each step through hypothetical and real life case studies.
February 2009 | Publication
Most rural indigenous people of Latin America live in poverty in communities that rely heavily on biomass and other solid fuels for cooking and heating. Communities at higher elevations in particular are often exposed to severe levels of indoor smoke from inefficient burning of fuels in open fires or rudimentary stoves in poorly ventilated spaces. Exposure to indoor air pollution (IAP) poses a serious health risk of respiratory infection, causing illness and even death for those who spend the most time in the home cooking environment, namely women and children.
January 2009 | Publication
