An Energy Crisis In Nepal

Nepal is a landlocked and developing country with abundant natural resources. However, even though, this country has uncountable natural resources, they are still behind in terms of energy sources. Energy sources are the backbone for the economic development of the country. However, nowadays the use of energy sources has been highly elevated that there is the depletion of energy going on in Nepal. If this continues for long, people will have to suffer from the energy crisis that will directly affect in the economic standard of the country. In Nepal, the present energy crisis going on is petroleum, gasoline, and electricity those are significant factors to upgrade the sustainable development of the country. The main causes of facing the energy crisis problems is because of depending 100% on foreign countries for petroleum and coal that is increasing at the rate of 10% annually. The consumption of energy has been increasing day by day that leads to import more products despite being low per capita country compared to other countries. Therefore, energy crisis causes social and economic problems in the country. To overcome those problems in upcoming days, government should concern on implanting renewable sources those are abundantly available in Nepal.

Socio and economic issues

In rural area, most of the people still depend on firewood to cook their foods and lightening their house causing the death of more than 7,500 women and children due to the indoor air pollution. Moreover, the depletion of forest area has been increasing due to the cutting down of forest for the human settlement and for household purposes contributing many natural calamities in that area which affect the life of humans and animals. So developing of electricity is a must in Nepal. However, to generate the electricity is not a cup of tea. It requires huge amount of capital and skilled labor that Nepal lacks. Therefore, Government finds out the easiest way of importing the 27% electricity from neighboring country, India. However, in November 9, 2015, The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) announced that they could not be able to distribute fuel for the certain period because India halted to export the products since five days and NOC has ran out of the stuck. NOC Director Gopal Bahadur Khadka said “fuel cannot be provided at the moment to the consumers as efforts to import fuel have failed while alternative measures have yet to be found despite continuous efforts” (The Kathmandu Post). People had to stand on line all night in gas station for 1L of petrol. The life of public was miserable, as they did not have gases for cooking foods as well as no electricity to run industries and business. The developing process of country became freeze at that time. Therefore, relying on the other countries for significant things like gas, oil and petrol is not suitable for the sustainable development of any countries. Moreover, the population of Nepal is growing rapidly that limited available non-renewable sources are not enough to distribute. Depending on non-renewable sources, lead to the energy crisis in upcoming future because if those sources finish one, then there is no chance of renewing them because that will take 1000 of years to replace.

Importing the goods from other countries and shortage of available resources causes the increase in the price of products that ultimately hamper the lifestyle of people. In the winter, there is high chance of depleting the energy because of elevating the demands of electric energy causing many people living in freezing temperature. The industries and factories will shut down because of lack of fuels to run them leading procrastination of rapid development. In current situation of Nepal, people still have problem of load-shedding (cut off power) because of insufficient energy for millions of people. So in this condition, how can country develop efficiently? Only way to get out of those horrific issues is being independent and using of renewable sources like solar, wind and water. Nepal is the rich country in the water resources; it has potential to generate 43,000 MW of hydroelectricity. Mostly, Nepal government’s is investing capital on micro hydropower to generate the electricity. Recently, over 900 micro hydro installations have done in some parts of Nepal.

Many potential energy sources such as fuel wood, hydropower and solar energy can minimize the energy crisis in Nepal. In Nepal, many people are depend on the forest fuel as it occupies 5.6 million hectares if Nepal’s land. The growing number of human civilization is taking over the forest that should be paused before there is no remain of forest. As forest provides fresh air, control pollution and protects from natural calamities it is also important for building houses, and industrial purposes. Therefore, the conservation of forest is significant. Nepal is blessed with theoretically huge hydropower potential of 83,000 MW, out of which about half (43,000 MW) is considered techno-economically usable. Therefore, establishment of hydropower in Nepal plays crucial role in controlling energy crisis. As Nepal is rich in water resources, it is not complicated to accumulate water and make the dam around. The main requirement is high budget and skilled work force. When the water is stored behind a dam is released at high pressure, it caused kinetic energy transferred onto turbine blades and used to generate electricity. Out of 83,000 MW of hydroelectric power potential, only 280 MW have produced until the date. If all the potentiality of hydropower develops, there would never load-shedding problem in Nepal and no need to import of electricity from foreign countries. Industries and factories can run all time that directly helps in the economic growth of the country.

Potential of Solar Energy

Solar energy is best generation for production of energy for the country like Nepal. In Nepal, stakeholders are using more than 348 KW of energy from sun. In rural area, solar energy can use to generate heat and electricity that is organic and effective for cooking food and warming the room in winter. In Nepal, there is 6.8 sunshine hours per day that has intensity of solar radiation ranging from 3.9 to 5 kWh per meter square that can generate 2100 MW of solar power. In 2015, Nepal and the World Bank signed an agreement to invest USD 130 million, to develop a 25 MW of solar project that will be connected to the national grid. The solar energy would help to conserve the electric power that will help Nepalese people to save their money of expensive electricity bills as well Nepal would lit 24 hours without any problem of load-shedding. Over 30 million population of country rely on energy sources and 100000 people can get employment opportunities from solar companies.

Petroleum Products

Petroleum products are strenuous to produce in Nepal therefore, that country has to depend on the other countries. Petroleum products plays vital role in running vehicles. Even though NOC has storage capacity of 70309 KL of petroleum products, it is being unable to supply properly due to the high population in Nepal. Nepal has imported$1,222.3 million of petroleum products from India alone. Without those products, we cannot imagine of development of Nepal. Nowadays, the numbers of automobiles are increasing day by day those results in the depletion of petroleum products and excess number of importing such products causing increase in the price of such products. Moreover, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has low stock of petroleum products that is not sufficient for thousands of people. That stock can finish anytime so government should give priority on investigating of coal from underground, extracting them and refine petroleum products from them by using innovative technology before the development of country resumed.

Wind Energy

Wind energy also assists on producing electricity for the country. Mostly in northern belt of Nepal is windy from where they can generate enormous amount of electricity. As reported in Mustang, wind generates about 200 MW of electricity. According to a study by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), Nepal has the potential to generate 3,000MW from wind energy, with the Kathmandu Valley alone capable of producing 70MW.Therefore, if technology and capital would provide, Nepal can generate huge number of electricity from wind so that they can export to other countries and do progress in economic sector. Technically, these energies require of big amount of budget to implement. However, it is worthy. It is better to implement the nation budget on those things than utilizing in unnecessary stuff because once these sources use to produce energy, Nepal does not need to rely on any other foreign countries and can develop in rapid process like other developed countries.

Conclusion

To conclude, Nepal is beautiful, small and plenary with abundant natural renewable sources. If government concentrates, on maneuvering the natural resources those does not need to be renew or worry to decline, the problem of crisis will gradually solve. Nepal already endured by depending on neighboring country through “India blockade” lesson in the past. Nepal should learn to use their own resources rather than depending upon other countries and suffer from same problem repeatedly. Many unemployment people could get job opportunities in solar companies, hydropower projects and wind mill companies that will help to uplift the economic standard of people. This will improve the economic sector of country and halt the out flowing of youths to other foreign countries for employment. Implementing of idea of extending hydropower, solar energy and wind energy will help in the reduction of harmful greenhouse gases that are harmful for plants and animals. That is how Nepal can have healthy environment leading to the smooth development of the country.