1. Pascale, A., Urmee, T., Whale, J. and S. Kumar. (2016) Examining the potential for developing women-led solar PV enterprises in rural Myanmar. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 57 . pp. 576-583 (Impact Factor: 5.901).
Abstract
Access to electricity is limited in rural areas of Myanmar, where the majority of the population live. Myanmar’s rich solar resource and the recent price drop in solar PV modules indicate initial suitability for rural solar electrification systems to meet the electricity demand. In many parts of Myanmar, women are responsible for supporting the family financially. The ability of rural women in Myanmar to take advantage of solar PV powered services to improve their lives depends on concurrent progress towards addressing the many dimensions of gender equality – empowerment, health, education, opportunity, voice, representation, and livelihood-in rural locations. This paper examines the barriers of solar PV applications and the potential for women led solar PV enterprise development in rural Myanmar. Although the entrepreneurial process is the same for men and women in theory, in practice different factors e.g. social/cultural, religion, economic and educational ultimately result in the disadvantaged status of women-led enterprises. Therefore, widespread and long-term eventuation of this potential in Myanmar depends on a government committed to renewable energy resources for rural electrification and to diligently and holistically addressing geographical, political, educational, financial, ethnic and technical barriers to the empowerment of a rural, female population.
2. Lipu M S Hossain , Pujan Shrestha, and S. Kumar, Energy poverty and Access to Modern Energy of Urban Poor: Case of Dhaka, Bangladesh. accepted for publication in International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, 12, 3, pp. 270-294.
The energy access status of urban poor in Dhaka is low inspite of being in an urban setting where the physical availability of modern energy like electricity and natural gas is prevalent. A demand based approach of estimating energy poverty showed that more than one third of population in Dhaka slums are poor and a monthly minimum 2.38 kgOE of useful energy is needed per person to sustain their basic needs. However, distribution of income and energy poor reveals that not all energy poor are income poor and vice versa, and there are more income poor than energy poor in the community. A closer look at the energy consumption pattern shows that the energy consumption of both energy and income poor are heavily reliant on traditional energy sources with minimal usage of modern energy. Adequate access to modern energy plays an important role in addressing energy poverty as well as income poverty.