In an ideal world, we would have a smart government. It would recognise our growing dependence on expensive imported fuel and give tax breaks for electric vehicles. But it isn't an ideal world. And our government isn't smart.

Nepal is going bankrupt subsidising fossil fuels, but still it tries its best not to allow vehicles that run on electricity. Fossil fuels don't just harm the ecology, they ruin the economy. The spectacularly mismanaged Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) owes Indian Oil Rs 20 billion, and this is growing at Rs 500 million a month.

Successive governments in Singha Darbar have been too beholden to the fossil fuel lobby to push electric public transport. Officials are concerned that giving tax breaks to electric vehicles will cut government revenue from petrol and diesel cars.

But calculations show that instead of losing money, the government could actually save in the long term through tax rebates on electric vehicles. Sale of hydroelectricity that would otherwise be wasted at night, and savings on fuel subsidies alone would cover up the revenue loss over a car's ten-year lifespan.

Running costs of electric vehicles like the Indian-made Reva are so low that even including battery replacement every four years, the saving to a customer over a petrol car is a staggering Rs 1,012,000 over ten years. That is at current petrol prices, so the savings will be even higher when petrol prices go up to Rs 120 per litre or more.

Uninterrupted power

Captive power plants may be the way to go for the near future

SUN SYSTEM: the rooftop solar array of a captive power system installed at Maiti Nepal.

Experts believe Nepal's power rationing is here to stay, with the electricity crisis expected to continue for another 10 years. In the absence of state provided electricity from the grid, captive power plants could be the answer.

Captive plants generate electricity from a combination of in-house solar, diesel or wind and are not dependent on the grid. Such systems are not just a green statement, but are a necessity for Nepali households, businesses and charities like Maiti Nepal (pictured, below).

For facilities with high energy demand during the day of up to 30 kVA, a solar-diesel utility is an ideal energy mix. The photovoltaic panels can be fed directly into the circuit during sunny days and the surplus stored in battery banks. On days with higher demand and cloudy days, the diesel auxiliary equipment can kick in. Such systems also avoid the need of large and expensive batteries, and the 20 per cent average losses that occur in storing energy chemically.

"Captive power plants can generate energy at a price which is competitive with present diesel generators," says Avishek Malla of Gham Power, a leading supplier of solar systems which has installed 150kWp of solar cells in Kathmandu in the past year-and-half.

The downside of solar arrays is that they have high capital expenditure, the batteries need maintenance and replacement, they need backups during cloudy days. However, by combining with diesel in a captive system many of these drawbacks can be removed and can be cheaper than having just diesel. Gham Power and other solar suppliers also offer packages where the customer pays a dual rate that gives uninterrupted power supply cheaper than the grid and diesel only systems.

Says Gham Power's Anjal Nirula: "By providing uninterrupted power and reducing dependency on fuel imports, captive power plants could set the foundation of energy security for Nepal."

Gham Power Nepal
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