How to Improve Energy Efficiency in Rural Households in Northeast Vietnam
Energy is important for economic growth of society and to everyday lives of people. Sustainable economic growth is often associated with an increase in access to and use of clean energy. Sustainable development is critical because clean energy use is less likely to deplete critical natural resources, has fewer negative health impacts and does not contribute to climate change. However, sufficient and reasonable provision of clean energy remains a major challenge in many developing economies, where about 2 billion people still rely on traditional biomass fuels such as wood, agricultural residues and dung for their daily energy needs. Additionally, about 1.4 billion people still suffer from a complete lack of access to electricity in the world.
Vietnam is among the most populated countries in southeast Asia and has the highest population density at 253 persons per square kilometre. The traditional rural houses in Vietnam are characterised by the representative architecture. Poverty rates in remote, inaccessible areas, such as in mountainous regions and the highlands, are still high, primarily among some ethnic minority groups. The incidence of poverty is often high among communities in rural areas, where access to energy, availability of employment and provision of infrastructure are often lower than in urban areas. Past and current poverty assessments show that despite the overall reduction to 24% nation-wide, the poverty rate in rural areas continues to be 4 to 6 times higher than that in urban areas. A high number of villages in the highlands are unidentified and problems remain in the remote areas of the northern mountains where the communities have not received electricity. According to Duong and Nguyen (2017) 1 million people primarily in the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam do not have access to electricity.
Gaps in Energy Access
Subsidies at the national and local levels formed the mechanism for enabling access to rural energy services for poverty reduction and gender equality. On the other hand these subsidies and electrification projects are far-fetched from the rural communities in Chi Lang and Van Quan districts in northeast Vietnam.
Existing subsidy mechanisms are developed for rural and semi-rural energy services through energy pricing for poverty reduction are listed below:
Subsidy to the lowest tier of electricity consumption corresponding to lower income households
Subsidy through exemption of freight cost for non-electricity energy services that serve isolated areas
Subsidy for petroleum products at the national level (decreasing gradually)
Technology Efficiency and Fuel Option Concerns
Vietnam has formulated policies and programmes for energy efficiency and conservation, under which efficient use of fuel is promoted through improved technology in transmission, end-use appliances and equipment, and through increased use of renewable energy. Kerosene has retained a significant share of rural energy consumption. The rural households used kerosene for lighting lamps. Kerosene lamps provide low intensity light, likely resulting in low quality of learning and, possibly, higher dropout rates of schoolchildren in areas without electricity.
For cooking, most rural households use inefficient cook stoves. Harmful gas emissions from these stoves likely affect the health of users, especially women and children.
Improved coal stoves have saturated urban households, but are beyond the purchasing capacity of lower income households.
Provision of efficient technologies for utilization of biomass, including low-cost options like improved cook stoves, that fit the need of lower income households receive little attention and support from international donors.
Clean coal technologies are not applied in the production and processing of coal for end use.
Best Practices To Prevent Indoor Air Pollution (IAP)
Improved cookstoves (ICS): The benefits of ICS include health improvements from better indoor air quality, cooking time savings, aesthetic improvements and improved social standing from the use of cleaner stoves Environmental benefits to society include reduced black carbon, greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.
Electric, gas and low-mass cooking stoves can achieve more than 30% fuel saving, compared to a three stone open fire, because the heated surface of the cooking pots is larger than the part of the pots which is cooled by the surrounding air.
From left to right: electric coil cookstove, gas cookstove, improved biomass cookstove
Products
Vietnam commercially introduced LPG, the cleanest alternative to fuelwood, coal and kerosene, in 1993. Domestic consumption of LPG was edging on 2 million tonnes per year in 2019.
A high proportion of the population in developing countries still rely on traditional energy sources. Traditional fuels such as firewood and straw are considered inferior goods for comparatively high-income households but normal goods for low-income households.
Villages in the mountainous regions of northeast Vietnam do not have access to electricity or have very little access to electricity. The use of primitive fuel for cooking is widely used amongst the households. This approach suggests that heavy reliance on solid fuels for cooking and heating is an indication of energy poverty. According to González-Eguino (2015), indoor pollution causes 1.3 million deaths per annum associated with the use of biomass in inadequate cookstoves in developing countries.
Indoor Air Pollution (IAP)
In Vietnam, around 60,000 deaths each year are air pollution-related. Air pollution leads people to be exposed to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections.
Comparison of the measured PM10 and Pm2.5 mass concentrations (μg m–3) in 2018
The above data is collected from WHO and Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City database that showcases the level of particulate matter (PM 10 and Pm2.5) in the air of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. The mortality is due to exposure to small particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5), which causes cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers.
In addition to outdoor air pollution, indoor smoke from households is a serious health risk for 3 billion people who cook and heat their homes with biomass fuels and coal. Some 3.8 million premature deaths were attributable to household air pollution in 2016. Almost all of the burden was in low-middle-income countries. Household air pollution is also a major source of outdoor air pollution in both urban and rural areas.
Weatherproofing the wooden shacks
Vietnam is located in the sub-equatorial monsoon climate. Winter in the North of Vietnam is cold, the air temperature sometimes drops to 1°C. In the Summer in the North of Vietnam, the highest temperature can reach up to 50°C, taking into account the influence of solar radiation. Therefore, the structure of roofs must provide the required heat transfer resistance for the operating conditions of the buildings with internal temperature between 20-25ºC to guarantee the coolness in summer and warmth in winter. Thermal insulation is a great solution to reduce energy consumption and protect households against cold in winter and excess heart in summer. By incorporating thermal insulation in every element of the thermal envelope: walls, roofs and floors, it will maintain the energy generated inside the wooden shacks while improving the thermal comfort. Major heat loss in a house - 25% of the heat loss happens through the roof, 35% heat loss through uninsulated walls.
A three-step retrofit insulation; the roof, walls and floor will assist the rural communities to save up to 25% of energy in heating the wooden shacks in the rainy season. Natural fibre insulation material like Pavatex wood fibre, sheep wool and hemp, have a high degree of vapour permeability as well as having excellent hygroscopic and capillarity qualities meaning they dry out quickly. The best insulation materials to use are natural fibre and foil insulations which will ensure that the whole structure remains warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
The staged approach aims to assist rural communities to improve their energy efficiency, depending on the level of resources available to the village. A number of papers view comprehensive energy upgrades as costly and in some cases not feasible due to accessibility. The lack of infrastructure to deliver advanced fuels or even transition fuels cited above make energy efficiency all the more important for minimizing the environmental impact of energy consumption in rural communities. The difficulty can be overcome by using traditional methods with a slow transition to educate the community and make aware about the advanced technologies as they become more available.
VATSAL ANARKAT