REACH

REACH Brings Wind and Solar Hybrid Systems for Remote Communities in Afghanistan

Inauguration of the Ahmed Shah mausoleum with a speaker system and lights powered by a hybrid and solar system.

AFGHANISTAN (August 2005) - A number of far-flung communities in Afghanistan will soon enjoy the benefits from renewable energy installations. Through the ADB sub project on Renewable Energy Development in Small Towns and Rural Areas in Afghanistan, community scale wind and solar hybrid systems, and micro-hydropower stations are being set up in remote areas with the assistance of engineers from the Ministry of Water and Power, who have been trained and commissioned under the sub project financed by the Danish Cooperation Fund for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Rural Areas under ADB's REACH Program.

As part of TA 3874-AFG: Capacity Building for Reconstruction and Development Component 1C, the goal of the subproject is to introduce renewable energy technologies and strengthen the capacity to promote renewable energy and undertake demonstration pilot projects for solar PV, wind and micro-hydro projects. Equipment of the micro-hydropower stations in Bandi-Amir (Bamiyan) and Thwak (Panjsher) has been procured. These stations are expected to provide electricity to about 10,000 persons.

Wind monitoring units at Panjsher (Ahmed Shah Massoud's mausoleum), Bamiyan and Kabul have been installed and nine other units in other parts of the country are to be installed soon. Data gathered from these units will be used to prepare a wind regime resource map for Afghanistan and size appropriate wind turbines for electricity generation.

Reforestation of the Wazir Akbar hill in Kabul has been initiated using a combination of drip of irrigation technology, solar powered water pumps and a solar/wind hybrid system. To provide potable water and refrigerate vaccines, three solar-powered ozone generated water treatment systems have also been installed in clinics in Kabul with the cooperation of the Ministry of Public Health. A wind turbine and solar photovoltaic at a high visibility site in Panjsher valley has likewise been set up.

An installed solar power system providing potable water at a children's clinic in Kabul.

In addition, the following plans and programs are completed for implementation:

• engineering design of two solar hot water systems to provide 400 liters of hot water to an orphanage in Kabul
• revised electrical energy policy of the Ministry of Water and Power to support wide dissemination of renewable energy in the country
• development plans of fifteen units of solar-powered pumps for small-scale irrigation and water supply for remote areas
• a social mobilization manual in English and Dari that will be made available countrywide to organizations engaged in community renewable energy electrification

The manual was developed during a Social Mobilization for Community Electrification Workshop that was held at the ADB Afghanistan Resident Mission focused on the identification and sequencing of the procedures required for smooth implementation and optimization of benefits from renewable energy installations.