Tania Urmee

Around 80% of the world’s economic growth projected from 2004 to 2030 will be contributed by non-OECD (Ellis, Energy service companies in developing countries: Potential and practice. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD, 2009).); energy service companies (ESCOs) can play a vital role in improving energy efficiency in developing countries. ESCO can help energy users, customers, companies, industries and commercial sectors to improve an efficiency of equipment by providing energy service (energy performance and/or credit risk). ESCO was implemented quite successfully to promote energy efficiency (EE) in majority of the European Union (EU) and developed countries such as the USA, Canada and Japan but not in many developing countries. This raised the question, what are the potential barriers of using ESCO for EE programmes in developing countries? It is, therefore, crucial to understand the ESCO approach in different countries to find lessons learned and best practices. The policy for implementing ESCO varied in different countries depends on many factors such as the culture, the acceptance of EE and also the level of EE development. Although the same policy of ESCO can be implemented in several countries, the result could be different. This research will provide a comprehensive overview of the success and barriers to implementing ESCO programmes for energy efficiency in the developing countries. The lessons learned from this will summarize with the recommendation to develop ESCO implementation in developing countries.

The energy demand in Asia has increased significantly in the past few decades, and is further projected to almost double by 2030. Specifically, the electricity demand in 2030 would be about 11,593 TWh, of which almost three-quarters would be from China, India and Japan. Also, the number of people without access to electricity in Asia is expected to be around 226 million in 2030. These figures indicate the significant investments required, and the various technology options to be considered for electricity generation in Asia. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is by far the most popular solar technology for online grid-connected systems, through solar farms and roof top systems, while concentrated solar thermal power system is slowly making inroads. This trend is significant in China, India, Indonesia and Thailand, and other Asian countries are increasingly following this trend. In Asia, a total of 87.75 GW PV and about 250 MW concentrated solar power systems, which are mainly grid-connected system, have been installed at the end of 2015. Most Asian countries have or are considering feed-in-tariff to promote solar PV in their countries, along with renewable and solar PV targets for 2020, 2030 and beyond. Interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the need to provide access to electricity to all citizens, constantly reducing PV prices and introduction of favourable policies are expected to contribute to spur the growth of online grid-connected solar systems in the coming years to much higher levels.

This chapter reports the result of short-term tests on three types of stand-alone systems. These tests are carried out in Grameen Shakti's laboratory. According to the battery manufacturer, depth of discharge and temperature affects the life and performance of the battery. The tests are carried out to find the depth of discharge at different temperature. For flooded lead–acid batteries, the water loss is directly related to the state of charge in the battery. In general, higher the state of charge corresponds to greater water loss. Allowance of this water loss needs to be included in system design or maintenance plans. The experimental results show that the life of the battery depends on the depth of discharge and is also affected by the temperature. The cycle life of the battery significantly reduces at higher temperatures. Also, the process contributing to battery degradation is generally enhanced at these temperatures. Considering the environmental condition of Bangladesh the battery should be used down to 60% or below discharge for better performance.