Impact assessment of the low cost energy technology project (9365701), the energy technical service support program (9365702), the small decentralized hydropower program (935-5715)

Department of Energy (DOE). VITA focused on demonstrating wind energy systems, e.g., in Honduras, and on developing more efficient woodstoves, by 1983 helping deliver improved woodstoves to over 100,000 people in 40 countries, including, notably, drought-stricken Burkina Faso. VITA also: developed a biomass stove and tested it in 17 countries; designed a simple and easily maintained dug-well handpump for Thailand; produced numerous publications as part of its international alternative energy network; and implemented a small grants program for small-scale energy projects. Despite changing emphases, NRECA's SDH program fielded 30 TA teams which helped 20 developing countries develop their SDH potential. NRECA also convened 4 international conferences and 2 seminars on SDH issues; assembled a library of over 4,000 references and 2,000 slides of SDH installations worldwide; and established a talent bank of 200 SDH specialists. The project's greatest success lay in strengthening the SDH capabilities both of developing countries, e.g., Madagascar and Thailand, and of NRECA itself, as evidenced by the latter's establishment, on the basis of project success, of an International Foundation to support SDH and related efforts overseas. On the negative side, NRECA failed to complete the SDH Economics Handbooks due to a depletion in funds -- a fact which indicates A.I.D.'s need to leverage available funds more wisely. Project -5702 provided TA to conventional and especially to RET technologies. A decline, beginning in the mid-1980's, in both Development Assistance funding and project activity led to the project's termination in 1988 after 2 years of non-use. Reasons for this demise included a breakdown in cooperation between A.I.D. and the DOE as a result of staff and management changes; policy shifts; and A.I.D.'s increasing use of the Economic Support Fund to finance energy projects. While it lasted, however, the project provided important assistance to A.I.D./W, Missions, and developing country governments; facilitated joint participation in multilateral activities; promoted policy reform through sector evaluations; and developed a body of experienced managers for A.I.D.'s energy portfolio. Despite their technological and methodological differences, the projects showed striking similarities. This was especially true of the VITA and NRECA projects, in which A.I.D. used cooperative agreements with experienced private, non-profit organizations to further its own aims while strengthening grantee institutional capacity. Both projects demonstrated the effectiveness of RET's (hydro, solar, wind, and some biomass) for daily application -- though only those which can compete in the market place in terms of cost, efficiency, and reliability can succeed in the long- term.