Published by: Nuru
Published date: 06 Dec 2021
In this chapter, we discuss about the brief description on energy, opportunity for Nepal to be rich in energy, advantages and disadvantages of energy resources.
Energy
Energy is required for cooking, running industries, running electrical appliances etc. We use energy to lit the fire, run heater and machines. These energies are achieved from the sources such as firewood, coal, hydro-electricity, generator, biogas, solar energy, natural gas, wind energy, battery etc. We can also achieve energy from petroleum products, nuclear reactants, organic and waste materials etc. The price of energy is very increasing in todays world as global warming has been alarming us vaguely.
Energy plays an important role in our daily life. Energy is also required for household purposes, to run offices, to run various types of equipment in hospitals, to run industries etc. Energy has become the most important requirement for the human. Energy has been a very essential for running vehicles, lighting purposes, any kind of daily life activities.
So, development of energy is directly related to the peace, prosperity and economic development.
Opportunity for Nepal to be rich in energy :
There is much possibility of producing energy in Nepal. There are lots of rivers that flow from sloping areas in Nepal so it has the potentiality to produce 83,000 MW of hydro-electricity. Among them, about 43,000 MW of hydro-electricity is possible to produce from the view of economy and technology. But until now, only 1000 MW of hydro-electricity has been produced. The produced electricity are mostly used in urban areas. The good supply of electricity has not reached rural areas.
Nepal has also got a huge oppurtunities to sell electricity to abrad but Nepal has only got transmission lines connected to India. Also, there is a big demand for electric vehicles, but the challenge is lack of charge stations in Nepal. In other countries, electric vehicles are in so much peak with developed charge station and good infrastructures
Advantages and Disadvantages of energy resources:
| Energy Resource | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Hydroelectric power stations | Clean and cheap to run | Expensive to set up and output could be affected by drought |
| Solar cells | Clean and cheap to run | Not always sunny and output does not always outweigh initial cost to set up |