Nepal on Tuesday inaugurated its largest wind-solar hybrid plant to provide power to a marginalized community in the village of Hariharpurgadi in the Sindhuli district in the country’s northeast.
The 35-kilowatt plant provides 110 kilowatts per hour (kWh) of electricity to 83 rural households, more than the village’s demand of 87 KWh per day.
Delegates from Kathmandu traveled to the village, some 50 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu and inaugurated the plant at the opening ceremony.
Jointly financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Nepal government, the $16.2 million project is part of the country’s attempt to provide clean energy to off-grid communities.
“Access to clean, reliable and affordable energy will help the village connect to the world through and mobile phones, and will create opportunities to boost local income,” Khamudkhanov, ADB’s country director for Nepal, said in a press statement on Tuesday.
“The electricity from the mini-grid will also open the door for commercial activities in the village and help small businesses get off the ground,” he said.
Referring to another ADB funded project, Ram Prasad Dhital, executive director of Alternative Energy Promotion Center, said, “Six years ago, the Government of Nepal, with support from ADB, launched its first mini grid wind-solar system in Dhaubadi in western Nepal. The success of these two projects has demonstrated that clean energy is indeed a viable option to provide reliable energy access to rural Nepal through wind-solar hybrid systems.”
The plant consists of 20-kilowatt wind turbines and 15-kilowatt solar panels.
Water resources-rich Nepal meets most of its electricity needs from hydropower plants, whose current output stands at 900 megawatts.
Deepak Adhikari in Kathmandu, Nepal