Nepal’s Economic Transformation Using Its Surplus Electricity

Nepal has a surplus of electricity generation that is slated to grow each year for the coming decades. The Ministry of Energy Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI) has developed an ambitious 10-year roadmap showing a quadrupling of per capita domestic consumption of electricity while at the same time increasing exports to neighboring countries to five times the country’s current total generation capacity. The Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) has developed an alternative “long-term strategy” that calls for using the green electricity, which is generated with renewable hydropower and solar energy, to reduce the country’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero over the next 20 years. This book reviews these strategies and attempts to answer the questions: 1) which sectors of the economy are best placed to utilize the projected surplus power? And 2) how intensive electrification of these sectors can generate new livelihoods for Nepali youth to find jobs in their own country and increase per capita incomes so their families can afford to use the generated electricity to improve their quality of life?

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Bikash Pandey is the Director of Clean Energy and Circular Economy, Winrock International. His work experience encompasses 35 years in policy review, design, and implementation of a range of clean/renewable energy projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He is one of the pioneers of micro-hydro development in Nepal as well as financing for Independent Power Producers. He holds an MS in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley and a SB in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also one of the founders of Martin Chautari.