IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v48y2012icp326-332.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human and animal power – The forgotten renewables

Author

Listed:
  • Fuller, R.J.
  • Aye, Lu

Abstract

Globally, there is still widespread dependence on traditional forms of energy, and human and animal power still contribute a significant proportion of the energy used in the rural areas of developing countries. After biomass, they are the most important energy sources for their populations. On a global scale, the energy contributed by human and animal power is estimated to be twice that of wind power and 13% of hydro, the largest single contributor of the renewable energy sources. This paper therefore argues that human and animal power should be included in the ‘family’ of renewable energy sources of solar, wind, hydro and biomass. There are numerous opportunities to improve the efficiency (and output) of hand, foot and animal-powered equipment. Improvements in these technologies will help to reduce the drudgery and hardship of everyday life of those who do not have access to modern forms of energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuller, R.J. & Aye, Lu, 2012. "Human and animal power – The forgotten renewables," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 326-332.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:48:y:2012:i:c:p:326-332
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2012.04.054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148112003254
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2012.04.054?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. 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.
    2. Nkakini, S.O. & Ayotamuno, M.J. & Maeba, G.P.D. & Ogaji, S.O.T. & Probert, S.D., 2007. "Manually-powered continuous-flow maize-sheller," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(12), pages 1175-1186, December.
    3. Alam, M.S & Roychowdhury, A & Waliuzzaman, K.M & Huq, A.M.Z, 1999. "Energy flow in the family farming system of a traditional village in Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 537-545.
    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. Plain, N. & Hingray, B. & Mathy, S., 2019. "Accounting for low solar resource days to size 100% solar microgrids power systems in Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 448-458.
    2. Baurzhan, Saule & Jenkins, Glenn P., 2016. "Off-grid solar PV: Is it an affordable or appropriate solution for rural electrification in Sub-Saharan African countries?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1405-1418.
    3. Adenle, Ademola A., 2020. "Assessment of solar energy technologies in Africa-opportunities and challenges in meeting the 2030 agenda and sustainable development goals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    4. McHenry, Mark P. & Doepel, David, 2015. "The ‘low power’ revolution: Rural off-grid consumer technologies and portable micropower systems in non-industrialised regions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 679-684.
    5. Kenfack, Joseph & Nzotcha, Urbain & Voufo, Joseph & Ngohe-Ekam, Paul Salomon & Nsangou, Jean Calvin & Bignom, Blaise, 2021. "Cameroon's hydropower potential and development under the vision of Central Africa power pool (CAPP): A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    6. Kirubi, Charles & Jacobson, Arne & Kammen, Daniel M. & Mills, Andrew, 2009. "Community-Based Electric Micro-Grids Can Contribute to Rural Development: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1208-1221, July.
    7. Suberu, Mohammed Yekini & Mustafa, Mohd Wazir & Bashir, Nouruddeen & Muhamad, Nor Asiah & Mokhtar, Ahmad Safawi, 2013. "Power sector renewable energy integration for expanding access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 630-642.
    8. Otte, Pia Piroschka, 2014. "Solar cooking in Mozambique—an investigation of end-user׳s needs for the design of solar cookers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 366-375.
    9. Muhammad Imran & Azlan Zahid & Salma Mouneer & Orhan Özçatalbaş & Shamsheer Ul Haq & Pomi Shahbaz & Muhammad Muzammil & Muhammad Ramiz Murtaza, 2022. "Relationship between Household Dynamics, Biomass Consumption, and Carbon Emissions in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Diallo, Arouna & Moussa, Richard K., 2020. "The effects of solar home system on welfare in off-grid areas: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    11. Jarosław Kulpa & Piotr Olczak & Tomasz Surma & Dominika Matuszewska, 2021. "Comparison of Support Programs for the Development of Photovoltaics in Poland: My Electricity Program and the RES Auction System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    12. 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.
    13. Pansera, Mario, 2012. "Renewable energy for rural areas of Bolivia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6694-6704.
    14. Harish, Santosh M. & Iychettira, Kaveri K. & Raghavan, Shuba V. & Kandlikar, Milind, 2013. "Adoption of solar home lighting systems in India: What might we learn from Karnataka?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 697-706.
    15. Brew-Hammond, Abeeku, 2010. "Energy access in Africa: Challenges ahead," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2291-2301, May.
    16. Ngusale, George K. & Luo, Yonghao & Kiplagat, Jeremiah K., 2014. "Briquette making in Kenya: Nairobi and peri-urban areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 749-759.
    17. Singh, Mudit Kumar, 2023. "What is state capacity and how does it matter for energy transition?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Hajat, A. & Banks, D. & Aiken, R. & Shackleton, C.M., 2009. "Efficacy of solar power units for small-scale businesses in a remote rural area, South Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2722-2727.
    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:48:y:2012:i:c:p:326-332. 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.