IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i4p1597-d1591666.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Clean Energy Transition: An Exploratory Case Study from Rural Egypt

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Abouaiana

    (Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Sinai University, Kantara Branch, Ismailia 41636, Egypt)

  • Alessandra Battisti

    (Department of Planning, Design, and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza, University of Rome, Via Flaminia 72, 00196 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

Rural areas are ideal for renewable energy facilities, supporting sustainable development and energy transition. Egypt aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector by 37% and energy consumption by 17% by 2030. Rural Egypt, hosting two-thirds of the population and building stock, consumes one-third of the total electricity. Thus, this paper provides an exploratory study to diagnose and benchmark the energy-use intensity of rural buildings and quantify the correlation between residential electricity consumption, built environment elements, and socio-economic factors, in addition to promoting techno-economic assessments of renewable energy from photovoltaic panels in rural Egypt, supporting national policies amid rapid rural development. The study utilized different analytical and field methods and statistical analyses. A typical agriculture-based rural village in the Delta region, northern Egypt, was selected; the built environment, building types, and socio-economic factors were examined. The results revealed a significant correlation between lifestyle, built-up area, household size, and floor numbers with residential buildings’ electricity consumption. The average annual electricity use intensity was benchmarked at 2.5–92.3 kWh/m 2 for six non-residential building typologies and at 22 kWh/m 2 and 6.67 kWh/dwelling for residential buildings. Under current regulations, rooftop solar panels can generate electricity significantly, but are not profitable. Eventually, insights for policymakers to inform energy transition policies and national initiatives for rural regeneration were provided. The research focused on a local context, but the methodology can be applied to rural settlements in similar contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Abouaiana & Alessandra Battisti, 2025. "Towards Clean Energy Transition: An Exploratory Case Study from Rural Egypt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-39, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1597-:d:1591666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1597/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1597/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clausen, Laura Tolnov & Rudolph, David, 2020. "Renewable energy for sustainable rural development: Synergies and mismatches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Li, Meng & Jin, Tianyu & Liu, Shenglong & Zhou, Shaojie, 2021. "The cost of clean energy transition in rural China: Evidence based on marginal treatment effects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Rasha Kassem & Mohamed Metwally Mahmoud & Nagwa F. Ibrahim & Abdulaziz Alkuhayli & Usama Khaled & Abderrahmane Beroual & Hedra Saleeb, 2024. "A Techno-Economic-Environmental Feasibility Study of Residential Solar Photovoltaic/Biomass Power Generation for Rural Electrification: A Real Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-24, February.
    4. Davis, Mark, 1998. "Rural household energy consumption : The effects of access to electricity--evidence from South Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 207-217, February.
    5. Ahmad, G.E., 2002. "Photovoltaic-powered rural zone family house in Egypt," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 379-390.
    6. Attia, Shady & Evrard, Arnaud & Gratia, Elisabeth, 2012. "Development of benchmark models for the Egyptian residential buildings sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 270-284.
    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. Jianling Qi & Huanjiao Li & Feng Ye & Lingjing Zhang & Tianhang Yang & Chengda Yan, 2025. "Powering Rural Prosperity: How Clean Energy Adoption Transforms Comprehensive Welfare of Rural Residents in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Siyou Xia & Yu Yang & Xiaoying Qian & Xin Xu, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Interaction and Socioeconomic Determinants of Rural Energy Poverty in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Morgan Bazilian & Patrick Nussbaumer & Hans-Holger Rogner & Abeeku Brew-Hammond & Vivien Foster & Shonali Pachauri & Eric Williams & Mark Howells & Philippe Niyongabo & Lawrence Musaba & Brian Ó Galla, 2011. "Energy Access Scenarios to 2030 for the Power Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 2011.68, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    4. Ahmed Moustapha Mfokeu & Elie Virgile Chrysostome & Jean-Pierre Gueyie & Olivier Ebenezer Mun Ngapna, 2023. "Consumer Motivation behind the Use of Ecological Charcoal in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Mazur, Christoph & Hoegerle, Yannick & Brucoli, Maria & van Dam, Koen & Guo, Miao & Markides, Christos N. & Shah, Nilay, 2019. "A holistic resilience framework development for rural power systems in emerging economies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 219-232.
    6. Ebers Broughel, Anna, 2019. "On the ground in sunny Mexico: A case study of consumer perceptions and willingness to pay for solar-powered devices," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Petr Hlavacek & Vladim r Skaln k, 2021. "The Implementation of Smart Energy into Transformation of the Rural Area: The Use of Public Policies for Smart Villages Development," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(4), pages 1-6.
    8. van der Kroon, Bianca & Brouwer, Roy & van Beukering, Pieter J.H., 2013. "The energy ladder: Theoretical myth or empirical truth? Results from a meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 504-513.
    9. Tian, Jianchi & Li, Yang & Sun, Yan & Yang, Bo & Chen, Xuefeng, 2024. "Warming climate apathy to mitigate the disparity in climate policy support across distinct income strata," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Yue Li & Muhammad Tayyab Sohail & Yanan Zhang & Sana Ullah, 2024. "Bioenergy for Sustainable Rural Development: Elevating Government Governance with Environmental Policy in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Malla, Sunil & Timilsina, Govinda R, 2014. "Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6903, The World Bank.
    12. Maes, Wouter H. & Verbist, Bruno, 2012. "Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 4204-4221.
    13. van der Kroon, Bianca & Brouwer, Roy & van Beukering, Pieter J.H., 2014. "The impact of the household decision environment on fuel choice behavior," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 236-247.
    14. Radhi, Hassan & Sharples, Stephen, 2013. "Quantifying the domestic electricity consumption for air-conditioning due to urban heat islands in hot arid regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 371-380.
    15. Brandão de Vasconcelos, Ana & Pinheiro, Manuel Duarte & Manso, Armando & Cabaço, António, 2015. "A Portuguese approach to define reference buildings for cost-optimal methodologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 316-328.
    16. Elias Carayannis & Pantelis Kostis & Hasan Dinçer & Serhat Yüksel, 2024. "Quality Function Deployment-Oriented Strategic Outlook to Sustainable Energy Policies Based on Quintuple Innovation Helix," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 6761-6779, June.
    17. Torero, Maximo, 2014. "The Impact of Rural Electrification," MPRA Paper 61425, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Viccaro, Mauro & Romano, Severino & Prete, Carmelina & Cozzi, Mario, 2021. "Rural planning? An integrated dynamic model for assessing quality of life at a local scale," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    19. Oparinde, Adewale, 2010. "Investigating the relationship between income, health and biomass consumption: a panel data analysis," MPRA Paper 39305, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. E. Somanathan & Randall Bluffstone, 2015. "Biogas: Clean Energy Access with Low-Cost Mitigation of Climate Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(2), pages 265-277, October.

    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:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1597-:d:1591666. 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.