Promoting Renewable Energy Technologies for Enhanced Rural Livelihoods (REFEL)
The objective of the Project was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve living conditions, food security and the economic situation of rural people in remote districts of Mid and Far West Nepal via application of renewable energy technologies. The Project involved the development of improved water mills (IWM) to grain grinding, husking, oil extraction and electricity production, as well as training and support for the promotion, testing and expanded use of variety of improved cooking stoves. The Project also supported the introduction of hydraulic ram pumps (Hydram) for small-scale irrigation in upland areas. All these renewable technologies were to support improved living conditions of rural people, especially traditional water mill operators, farmers and women and girls in general.
The Overall Objective of the proposed project was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the living conditions and economic situation of rural people in remote districts of Far Western Region of Nepal through application of renewable energy technologies.
The specific objective of the project was to build capacity within local organisations and beneficiaries in the far west region of Nepal, in order to:
I. Install 5000 Improved cooking stove in daily use households in project area for saving firewood and decreasing environmental degradation and air pollution.
II. Install 100 energy efficient water mills and 5 units with electrification for grinding grain, husking, oil extraction and electricity production of our project area.
III. Trial hydraulic ram pumps installed in 5 locations, saving energy and permitting off-seasons crop production in remote areas.
The far and mid-west regions in Nepal, due to their remote mountainous location, have little or no access to energy from the grid. The area was also among the poorest in Nepal, and several of the districts suffered from food deficits. Through the implementation of three different innovative renewable energy technologies, we intended to increase the use of renewable energy, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions, whilst improving living conditions, food security and the economic situation for the rural population. Funding was provided within a two year project by the Nordic Climate Fund and NEFCO, working together with the MFA Finland-funded Rural Village Water Resources Management Project. Nepal is greatly threatened by climate change. Generally it is expected that slow-onset climatic changes will lead to reductions in both the quality and quantity of natural resources which the poor depend on. FCG International Ltd and the Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal implemented and monitored the project, together with the staff of the RVWRMP.
In the project area women grinded grain by hand or used traditional water mills that are slow and inefficient. The project was to upgrade water mills to more efficient types. The purpose was to provide a more efficient service, better local business to mill operators and reduce queuing time, as well as manual grinding. This meant a decreased labour burden for women and girls.
Cooking is another activity usually carried out by women. Most cooking was done on inefficient traditional stoves that burned firewood. They led to wasteful consumption of firewood, deforestation and an unhealthy smoky household environment. The project was to build on earlier efforts of RVWRMP to expand the use of improved cooking stoves. These had the potential of increasing energy efficiency, through firewood saving, by 30% to 50 % compared to the traditional cooking stoves.
Furthermore, the project was to support the introduction of hydraulic ram pumps (requiring no additional power source) for small-scale irrigation in upland areas. This improvement was to benefit farmers who were not able to use gravity fed irrigation and thus were only able to grow crops during the rainy season.