energy
Access to energy is a critical factor for poverty alleviation, improvements in health and education, environmental sustainability, and the empowerment of women. Energy services such as lighting, cooking, heating and cooling, water pumping, refrigeration, transportation, and communications are essential for economic and social development. However, gender inequities continue to pervade the...
In many Western European mountains, ancient irrigation practices have been the basis for sustainable subsistence-based mountain agriculture, especially up to the beginning of the 20th century. These mountain zones have proved popular sites for the development of hydroelectric power (HEP). Few attempts have been made to measure the impact of HEP on traditional indigenous irrigation...
Special difficulties and high costs are frequently incurred when sources of energy such as kerosene or dry-cell batteries are transported to mountain areas. Moreover, use and disposal of these sources of energy pose risks to health and the environment. On the other hand, the use of local, renewable sources of energy such as wind, water, or solar power ensures that mountain communities can...
Hydropower is a renewable source of energy of which ecological benefits include very low average greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of dams, however, more than 20% of all freshwater fish species are now considered threatened or endangered. Such negative ecological impacts are a focus of broad public concern in Alpine regions where hydropower production is most intense. The liberalisation of...
Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, large areas of West Java's mountainous rainforests were transformed into tea gardens. The volcanic soils, high rainfall, and cool climate of this region proved the perfect environment for such plantations. During this period, many tea factories were powered by small hydropower plants (SHPs). The location of the factories on tea...
Honduras is predominantly mountainous; its highest peaks are close to 2800 m. The country has a population of approximately s million and an area of 112,000 km2. In a bid to solve its energy problems and achieve greater self-sufficiency in energy production, Honduras turned to its abundant water resources. El Cajon Reservoir, the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in the country...
An adequate and reliable supply of energy is a prerequisite for development. In Nepal, forests and water are the two major indigenous energy resources. Forests are being overexploited in many parts of the country, mainly for fuelwood, whereas water resources are underutilised with regard to their capacity to generate hydroelectricity. Nepal might be able to control forest...
Since the extremely dry and hot summer of 2003, the question of what effects ongoing climate change will have on hydropower in Switzerland - mainly on the amount of electricity that will be produced, but also on the safety of hydropower plants - has often arisen. Even though predictions of the potential impacts of climate change on hydropower generation are characterised by uncertainty,...
The signing of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project treaty in 1986 between Lesotho and the then apartheid government of the Republic of South Africa triggered mixed feelings. In Lesotho and several other countries in the region, the project was seen as a sellout that compromised the struggles of the oppressed, tantamount to Lesotho becoming a province of South Africa. Additional objections grew...
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