Book Reviews
the following reasons: 1. All the papers presented at the meeting (and included in the book) were prepared by African researchers or foreign experts but none by people in charge of the local utilities (electricty, oil and gas) which are ultimately responsible for supplying energy to the population. The possible exception is the paper of Ela Sadig Musa from the African Development Bank which differs appreciably from the others, being supply-oriented. In this sense, the meeting was basically a meeting of NGOs. One will have to reach governments to attain real success in implementing new strategies. 2. Mobilization of financial resources is a worn-out claim which has not been very successful in the past and will propably be even less successful in the future. 3. Finally, the approach confuses somewhat between the emphasis on disseminating improved woodstoves in Uganda and other countries and ideas of ‘‘leapfrogging’’ with technologies such as photovoltaics in Botswana and LPG in Ghana. Some of these rely on local financial resources and self-reliance, others on external resources. It would be useful to address this question more candidly. Despite these shortcomings, the book is a useful introduction to African energy problems and deserves to be read with attention.
1994, 103-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B4HH. This is the second edition of a very useful book produced by TDG (Technology and Development Group of the University of Twente of the Netherlands) and Intermediate Technology Publications. It has grown from material used in courses in Rural Energy Planning and the Environment and Energy Management and Conservation in small and medium-scale industries. It is organized in three parts: l socio-economic considerations, l guidelines to each type of energy technology (solar power, wind power, water power, biomass energy technology and internal combustion engines) and l a comprehensive list, by country, of manufacturers and their agents which takes up almost two-thirds of the book. In the Introduction, the role smallscale energy technologies can play, technical criteria for selection and cost-effectiveness are explained rather simply and unpretentiously. Although much has been said of the importance of such technologies, progress has been disappointingly slow, in our view. In 1980, there were 3,000 kW of photovoltaic panels around the world and in 1992, 60,000 kW, spread out in maybe 10-20,000 installations, most of them used for water pumping. To keep the perspective one could remind the readers that in 1978 a team at the World Bank presented a compelling case for micro-irrigation on a huge scale using PV solar pumps. A goal of 10 million units was presented as ‘‘appropriate’’, representing 10 percent of potential farming consumption, but still having a significant impact. It is mentioned in the Introduction that perhaps 100,000 small wind generators are in use in the world for charging batteries, of which about half are in China (in addition to perhaps 2 million units in use worldwide in the livestock regions of countries
Source book for students of energy
Jose Goldemberg The Power Guide -- an international catalogue of small scale energy equipment. Introduced by Wim Hulscher and Peter Fraenkel, Intermediate Technology Publications,
like Australia, Argentina and South Africa). The important novelty in wind power however is not in the direction this book addresses itself to: it is taking place in prosperous regions of the world -- Denmark and California -- where ‘‘wind farms’’ made up of large units generate electricity which is fed into the grid. About 3% of the electricity used in these areas comes from the wind, and Denmark intends to go up to 10% by the year 2000. Biomass has indeed great potential as the book claims, but again here very significant progress is being made in the direction of large-scale use of biomass in urban water, cogeneration of heat and electricity and of course in ethanol production from sugarcane juice. One must mention here that all the successful alcohol distilleries in Brazil are large-scale operations and the attempts to develop mini-distilleries have failed due to economic and technological reasons. One of the interesting chapters of the book is on internal combustion (IC) engines where good hints are given on ‘‘how to select an IC engine’’ which responds to questions people out in rural areas of developing countries have to face. Interest in the use of vegetable oils in diesel engines is experiencing a rebirth and seems to be a promising technology. Finally, one should point out that -- as the title of the book indicates -The Power Guide deals with sources of energy supply and does not discuss at all end-uses of energy and the whole question of improvements in the efficiency of energy use. As is well known, progess in this area is rather impressive and frequently one can achieve the same desired result in energy services with smaller energy inputs. All in all, however, The Power Guide is very well presented and it is the book to be used by anyone giving courses on the subject or facing energy problems in rural areas. Jose Goldemberg is Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Energy for Sustainable Development
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Volume 1 No. 1
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