IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v36y2011i11p3154-3165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

And then what happened? A retrospective appraisal of China’s Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP)

Author

Listed:
  • D’Agostino, Anthony L.
  • Sovacool, Benjamin K.
  • Bambawale, Malavika Jain

Abstract

From 2002 to 2007, more than 400,000 photovoltaic (PV) solar home systems (SHS) were sold in northwestern China under the US$316 million World Bank/Global Environment Facility-supported Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP). REDP has been hailed as a best practice example in SHS deployment for its unprecedented scale and the combination of technology improvement and market development support components to strengthen the country’s renewable energy industry. While the World Bank has itself conducted post-project evaluations, our paper presents the first independent review with the intent of determining if anticipated project impacts have been sustained. We adopt a case study format supported by in-depth interviews with the project’s relevant stakeholder groups and find that solar home systems (SHS) provide monetary and non-monetary benefits to users and that their portability complements the lifestyle of the region’s nomadic herders. However, we also find that purchasing decisions are still based on price more than quality, after-sales service networks remain weak, and households in REDP’s coverage area are gradually gaining access to hydropower-based grid electricity.

Suggested Citation

  • D’Agostino, Anthony L. & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Bambawale, Malavika Jain, 2011. "And then what happened? A retrospective appraisal of China’s Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3154-3165.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:11:p:3154-3165
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148111001315
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martinot, E. & Cabraal, A. & Mathur, S., 2001. "World Bank/GEF solar home system projects: experiences and lessons learned 1993-2000," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 39-57, March.
    2. Li, Zhimin & Tang, Runsheng & Xia, Chaofeng & Luo, Huilong & Zhong, Hao, 2005. "Towards green rural energy in Yunnan, China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 99-108.
    3. Zhou, Zhongren & Wu, Wenliang & Chen, Qun & Chen, Shufeng, 2008. "Study on sustainable development of rural household energy in northern China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(8), pages 2227-2239, October.
    4. Cherni, Judith A. & Kentish, Joanna, 2007. "Renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3616-3629, July.
    5. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John & Li, Wen, 2010. "A survey of China's renewable energy economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 438-445, January.
    6. Karekezi, Stephen & Kithyoma, Waeni, 2002. "Renewable energy strategies for rural Africa: is a PV-led renewable energy strategy the right approach for providing modern energy to the rural poor of sub-Saharan Africa?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(11-12), pages 1071-1086, September.
    7. Tsai, Kellee S., 2004. "Imperfect Substitutes: The Local Political Economy of Informal Finance and Microfinance in Rural China and India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1487-1507, September.
    8. World Bank, 2010. "World Development Report 2010," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4387.
    9. Junfeng, Li & Wan, Yih-huei & Ohi, James M., 1997. "Renewable energy development in China: Resource assessment, technology status, and greenhouse gas mitigation potential," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 56(3-4), pages 381-394, March.
    10. Liu, Li-qun & Wang, Zhi-xin & Zhang, Hua-qiang & Xue, Ying-cheng, 2010. "Solar energy development in China--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 301-311, January.
    11. van der Vleuten, F. & Stam, N. & van der Plas, R., 2007. "Putting solar home system programmes into perspective: What lessons are relevant?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1439-1451, March.
    12. Tang, Sai & Guan, Zhengfei & Jin, Songqing, 2010. "Formal and Informal Credit Markets and Rural Credit Demand in China," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61339, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Peidong, Zhang & Yanli, Yang & jin, Shi & Yonghong, Zheng & Lisheng, Wang & Xinrong, Li, 2009. "Opportunities and challenges for renewable energy policy in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 439-449, February.
    14. Martinot, Eric, 2001. "World bank energy projects in China: influences on environmental protection," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 581-594, June.
    15. Liming, Huang, 2007. "A study of China-India cooperation in renewable energy field," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(8), pages 1739-1757, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Popp, 2012. "The Role of Technological Change in Green Growth," NBER Working Papers 18506, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. John Foster & Liam Wagner & Liam Byrnes, 2014. "A Review of Distributed Generation for Rural and Remote Area Electrification," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 3-2014, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    3. Garlet, Taís Bisognin & Ribeiro, José Luis Duarte & de Souza Savian, Fernando & Mairesse Siluk, Julio Cezar, 2019. "Paths and barriers to the diffusion of distributed generation of photovoltaic energy in southern Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 157-169.
    4. Zou, Hongyang & Du, Huibin & Ren, Jingzheng & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Zhang, Yongjie & Mao, Guozhu, 2017. "Market dynamics, innovation, and transition in China's solar photovoltaic (PV) industry: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 197-206.
    5. Dutz, Mark A. & Sharma, Siddharth, 2012. "Green growth, technology and innovation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5932, The World Bank.
    6. Komatsu, Satoru & Kaneko, Shinji & Ghosh, Partha Pratim & Morinaga, Akane, 2013. "Determinants of user satisfaction with solar home systems in rural Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 52-58.
    7. Yawei Wang & Frauke Urban & Yuan Zhou & Luyi Chen, 2018. "Comparing the Technology Trajectories of Solar PV and Solar Water Heaters in China: Using a Patent Lens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-29, November.
    8. Karakaya, Emrah & Sriwannawit, Pranpreya, 2015. "Barriers to the adoption of photovoltaic systems: The state of the art," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 60-66.
    9. Popp, David, 2012. "The role of technological change in green growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6239, The World Bank.
    10. Liu, Dawei & Shiroyama, Hideaki, 2013. "Development of photovoltaic power generation in China: A transition perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 782-792.
    11. Cao, Wensheng & Bluth, Christoph, 2013. "Challenges and countermeasures of China’s energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 381-388.
    12. Zhang, Minhui & Zhang, Qin & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Lei, 2021. "Punishment or reward? Strategies of stakeholders in the quality of photovoltaic plants based on evolutionary game analysis in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    13. Masako Numata & Masahiro Sugiyama & Wunna Swe & Daniel del Barrio Alvarez, 2021. "Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy in Myanmar: Energy Source Preference," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, March.

    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. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & D'Agostino, Anthony L. & Jain Bambawale, Malavika, 2011. "The socio-technical barriers to Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Papua New Guinea: "Choosing pigs, prostitutes, and poker chips over panels"," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1532-1542, March.
    2. Liu, Wen & Lund, Henrik & Mathiesen, Brian Vad & Zhang, Xiliang, 2011. "Potential of renewable energy systems in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 518-525, February.
    3. Felix Groba & Jing Cao, 2015. "Chinese Renewable Energy Technology Exports: The Role of Policy, Innovation and Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(2), pages 243-283, February.
    4. Hong, Lixuan & Zhou, Nan & Fridley, David & Raczkowski, Chris, 2013. "Assessment of China's renewable energy contribution during the 12th Five Year Plan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1533-1543.
    5. Dinçer, Furkan, 2011. "The analysis on photovoltaic electricity generation status, potential and policies of the leading countries in solar energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 713-720, January.
    6. Wang, Shujie & Yuan, Peng & Li, Dong & Jiao, Yuhe, 2011. "An overview of ocean renewable energy in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 91-111, January.
    7. Chaurey, Akanksha & Kandpal, Tara Chandra, 2010. "Assessment and evaluation of PV based decentralized rural electrification: An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2266-2278, October.
    8. Zeng, Ming & Li, Chen & Zhou, Lisha, 2013. "Progress and prospective on the police system of renewable energy in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 36-44.
    9. Lam, Joseph C. & Wan, Kevin K.W. & Lau, Chris C.S. & Yang, Liu, 2008. "Climatic influences on solar modelling in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1591-1604.
    10. Wang, Bing & Ke, Ruo-Yu & Yuan, Xiao-Chen & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "China׳s regional assessment of renewable energy vulnerability to climate change," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 185-195.
    11. Kaygusuz, K., 2011. "Energy services and energy poverty for sustainable rural development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 936-947, February.
    12. Muhammad Shahid Mastoi & Hafiz Mudassir Munir & Shenxian Zhuang & Mannan Hassan & Muhammad Usman & Ahmad Alahmadi & Basem Alamri, 2022. "A Comprehensive Analysis of the Power Demand–Supply Situation, Electricity Usage Patterns, and the Recent Development of Renewable Energy in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-34, March.
    13. Marius Korsnes, 2014. "Fragmentation, Centralisation and Policy Learning: An Example from China’s Wind Industry," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 43(3), pages 175-205.
    14. Lam, J.C.K. & Woo, C.K. & Kahrl, F. & Yu, W.K., 2013. "What moves wind energy development in China? Show me the money!," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 423-429.
    15. Carrasco, L.M. & Narvarte, L. & Martínez-Moreno, F. & Moretón, R., 2014. "In-field assessment of batteries and PV modules in a large photovoltaic rural electrification programme," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 281-288.
    16. Zhang, Dahai & Wang, Jiaqi & Lin, Yonggang & Si, Yulin & Huang, Can & Yang, Jing & Huang, Bin & Li, Wei, 2017. "Present situation and future prospect of renewable energy in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 865-871.
    17. John Foster & Liam Wagner & Liam Byrnes, 2014. "A Review of Distributed Generation for Rural and Remote Area Electrification," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 3-2014, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    18. Pansera, Mario, 2012. "Renewable energy for rural areas of Bolivia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6694-6704.
    19. Diouf, Boucar, 2016. "Tontine: Self-help financing for solar home systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 166-174.
    20. Pahle, Michael & Pachauri, Shonali & Steinbacher, Karoline, 2016. "Can the Green Economy deliver it all? Experiences of renewable energy policies with socio-economic objectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1331-1341.

    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:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:11:p:3154-3165. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.