Environmentally sound small-scale energy projects: Guidelines for planning

The purpose of this manual is to help development workers and others to become aware of the environmental factors that should be considered in planning small-scale energy projects that are environmentally sound and therefore more likely to be sustained. Environmentally sound planning includes the physical environmental factors as well as the socioeconomic and cultural factors. This approach helps assure the protection of the renewable natural resources that supply most of the energy used in the Third World.

Traditional sources--dung, crop and forest residues, fuelwood, and human and animal energy-- make up a very significant amount of the energy used in developing countries. Estimates of how much traditional fuels are used vary, largely because of the difficulty in measuring non- commercial fuel use. Recent estimates indicate that in Asia these fuels account for about 65% of total energy use, in Africa, about 85%, and in Latin America, about 20%. This masks the enormous variation both between and within countries. (author).