IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i13p4659-d847745.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Rural Electrification: Harnessing a Cosmolocal Wind

Author

Listed:
  • Katerina Troullaki

    (Bioeconomy and Biosystems Economics Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Akrotiri Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece)

  • Stelios Rozakis

    (Bioeconomy and Biosystems Economics Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Akrotiri Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece)

  • Kostas Latoufis

    (Rural Electrification Research Group (RurERG), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 10682 Athens, Greece)

  • Chris Giotitsas

    (Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia)

  • Christina Priavolou

    (Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia)

  • Fausto Freire

    (Association for the Development of Industrial Aerodynamics (ADAI), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal)

Abstract

In this article, we explore the sustainability potential of an alternative commons-based mode of production called cosmolocalism. Cosmolocal production combines global knowledge production with local physical production. Such a production mode has been applied across the globe for locally manufacturing small wind turbines (SWTs) for rural electrification. We assess the sustainability of such cosmolocal SWTs in a case study of electrifying a rural community in Ethiopia. In this context, the life cycles of five SWT alternatives have been compared, ranging from conventional industrially produced turbines to open-source locally manufactured and maintained ones. Our case study indicates that the local manufacturing and maintenance of SWTs offer significant advantages and may redeem small wind turbines as a sustainable component for rural electrification. Specifically, the fully cosmolocal alternative (A1) performs better than any other alternative in technical, environmental, and social criteria, while it is close to the best-performing alternative with regard to economic objectives. For this solution to be implemented, the institutional burden cannot be neglected, but can rather be considered a sine qua non condition for locally manufactured and maintained SWTs. A set of generic institutional interventions to create favourable conditions for cosmolocal production is proposed, which needs to be elaborated in a context-specific manner.

Suggested Citation

  • Katerina Troullaki & Stelios Rozakis & Kostas Latoufis & Chris Giotitsas & Christina Priavolou & Fausto Freire, 2022. "Sustainable Rural Electrification: Harnessing a Cosmolocal Wind," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:13:p:4659-:d:847745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4659/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4659/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kabir, Md Ruhul & Rooke, Braden & Dassanayake, G.D. Malinga & Fleck, Brian A., 2012. "Comparative life cycle energy, emission, and economic analysis of 100 kW nameplate wind power generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 133-141.
    2. Kabayo, Jeremiah & Marques, Pedro & Garcia, Rita & Freire, Fausto, 2019. "Life-cycle sustainability assessment of key electricity generation systems in Portugal," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 131-142.
    3. Troullaki, Katerina & Rozakis, Stelios & Kostakis, Vasilis, 2021. "Bridging barriers in sustainability research: Α review from sustainability science to life cycle sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Terrapon-Pfaff, Julia & Dienst, Carmen & König, Julian & Ortiz, Willington, 2014. "How effective are small-scale energy interventions in developing countries? Results from a post-evaluation on project-level," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 809-814.
    5. Leary, J. & While, A. & Howell, R., 2012. "Locally manufactured wind power technology for sustainable rural electrification," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 173-183.
    6. Christina Priavolou & Vasilis Niaros, 2019. "Assessing the Openness and Conviviality of Open Source Technology: The Case of the WikiHouse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Bridge, Gavin & Bouzarovski, Stefan & Bradshaw, Michael & Eyre, Nick, 2013. "Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 331-340.
    8. Adrian Smith & Sabine Hielscher & Sascha Dickel & Johan Söderberg & Ellen van Oost, 2013. "Grassroots Digital Fabrication and Makerspaces: Reconfiguring, Relocating and Recalbirating Innovation?," SPRU Working Paper Series 2013-02, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Mandelli, Stefano & Barbieri, Jacopo & Mereu, Riccardo & Colombo, Emanuela, 2016. "Off-grid systems for rural electrification in developing countries: Definitions, classification and a comprehensive literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1621-1646.
    3. Busola D. Akintayo & Oluwafemi E. Ige & Olubayo M. Babatunde & Oludolapo A. Olanrewaju, 2023. "Evaluation and Prioritization of Power-Generating Systems Using a Life Cycle Assessment and a Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Zhai, Jihua & Burke, Ian T. & Stewart, Douglas I., 2021. "Beneficial management of biomass combustion ashes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Wiegand, Julia, 2017. "Dezentrale Stromerzeugung als Chance zur Stärkung der Energie-Resilienz: Eine qualitative Analyse kommunaler Strategien im Raum Unna," Wuppertaler Studienarbeiten zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, volume 11, number 11.
    6. Shalini Verma & Akshoy Ranjan Paul & Nawshad Haque, 2022. "Selected Environmental Impact Indicators Assessment of Wind Energy in India Using a Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, May.
    7. Funcke, Simon & Bauknecht, Dierk, 2016. "Typology of centralised and decentralised visions for electricity infrastructure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 67-74.
    8. Caragliu, Andrea & Graziano, Marcello, 2022. "The spatial dimension of energy transition policies, practices and technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    9. Daví-Arderius, Daniel & Sanin, María-Eugenia & Trujillo-Baute, Elisa, 2017. "CO2 content of electricity losses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 439-445.
    10. Moroni, Stefano & Antoniucci, Valentina & Bisello, Adriano, 2016. "Energy sprawl, land taking and distributed generation: towards a multi-layered density," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 266-273.
    11. Burcin Atilgan Turkmen & Fatos Germirli Babuna, 2024. "Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Wind Turbines: A Path to Sustainability with Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-23, June.
    12. Agnieszka Napiorkowska-Baryla & Miroslawa Witkowska-Dabrowska & Natalia Swidynska, 2022. "Financing of Activities Increasing the Energy Efficiency of Residential Buildings in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 690-712.
    13. Thakkar, Jignesh & Kumar, Amit & Ghatora, Sonia & Canter, Christina, 2016. "Energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions from the production and sequestration of charcoal from agricultural residues," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 558-567.
    14. Niklas Andersen & Ola Eriksson & Karl Hillman & Marita Wallhagen, 2016. "Wind Turbines’ End-of-Life: Quantification and Characterisation of Future Waste Materials on a National Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-24, November.
    15. Gavin Bridge & Ludger Gailing, 2020. "New energy spaces: Towards a geographical political economy of energy transition," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(6), pages 1037-1050, September.
    16. Thomas L Muinzer & Geraint Ellis, 2017. "Subnational governance for the low carbon energy transition: Mapping the UK’s ‘Energy Constitution’," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(7), pages 1176-1197, November.
    17. Lahimer, A.A. & Alghoul, M.A. & Yousif, Fadhil & Razykov, T.M. & Amin, N. & Sopian, K., 2013. "Research and development aspects on decentralized electrification options for rural household," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 314-324.
    18. Burillo, Daniel & Chester, Mikhail V. & Pincetl, Stephanie & Fournier, Eric, 2019. "Electricity infrastructure vulnerabilities due to long-term growth and extreme heat from climate change in Los Angeles County," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 943-953.
    19. Byron Miller & Samuel Mössner, 2020. "Urban sustainability and counter-sustainability: Spatial contradictions and conflicts in policy and governance in the Freiburg and Calgary metropolitan regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(11), pages 2241-2262, August.
    20. Ramón López Rodríguez & Francisco R. Durán Villa & María José Piñeira Mantiñán, 2021. "The Lessons of Public–Private Collaboration for Energy Regeneration in a Spanish City. The Case of Txantrea Neighbourhood (Pamplona)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:13:p:4659-:d:847745. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.