Many organisations struggle from year to year with project funding, which limits the sustainability of many small-scale renewable energy efforts. Undeterred, however, non-profit organisations and social businesses continually search for novel solutions to the financing challenge, solutions that are essential for achieving the SDGs and climate goals.

Currently, poultry farms often rely on diesel generators to meet their energy needs due to the unreliable supply of grid electricity. However, despite the perceived advantages, the implementation and upscaling of biogas technology in the commercial sector in Nepal faces several barriers. These include high investment costs, lack of credit from financial institutions, lack of confidence in the technology which has not been successfully demonstrated in Nepal, and inadequate information about the application of the technology and its potential benefits for poultry farm owners.

The major objectives of the first project phase (initiated in January 2018) were to effectively engage with local stakeholders, to create awareness about commercial biogas use in the poultry industry and to build capacity amongst poultry farmers.

The project team at Winrock Nepal was successful in engaging the stakeholders, as well as in creating awareness and building capacity amongst selected poultry farmers (from the Rupandehi, Kapilbastu, and Nawalparasi districts) on commercial biogas technology in Nepal.

A meeting with AEPC to kickstart the project was held in February 2018, followed by literature reviews and a consultation with experts from Bangladesh and Nepal to share best practice in biogas digester technology at poultry farms. Furthermore, Winrock was able to effectively engage with the Nepal Hatchery and Poultry Association, AEPC, as well as financial institutions such as NMB Bank.

Future updates will be published in our news blog. More general information on this SEPS project is available on our SEPS project page: Unlocking Credit to Promote the use of Commercial Biogas in the Poultry Industry

This year’s conference is jointly organised by Wind Empowerment and the National Institute for Wind Energy (NIWE), India. It will be longer than previous conferences, spanning approximately two weeks: one week of training sessions and one week for the conference programme.

The overarching theme "Bringing Small Wind Turbines up to Scale" is a key issue to the integration of small wind into an energy ecosystem where photovoltaic is ever cheaper and hybrid solutions are becoming mainstream ideas.

WEIndia2018 will be hosted at two locations in India, Chennai and Kayathar, both located within the state of Tamil Nadu:

• Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, at NIWE’s main offices
• Kayathar, a small town in the state of Tamil Nadu, very close to Madurai, at NIWE’s Wind Turbine Test Station (WTTS) & Wind Turbine Research Station (WTRS)

Pre-conference activities (9 days) will take place at NIWE’s facilities in Kayathar. On the 9th day, participants will be transferred by bus to Madurai airport (2-hour drive) and by plane to Chennai (1-hour flight), where the Main conference activities (5 days) will take place.

In Kayathar, NIWE’s warehouse areas will be used for the hands-on manufacturing workshops, where all parts of a wind turbine, from blades and generator to tower and electronics will be constructed. This equipment will be bench tested, assembled, installed and field tested at NIWE’s Wind Turbine Test Station. NIWE’s Wind Turbine Research Station will also be visited and used for parallel activities.

In Chennai, participants will visit NIWE’s training center and main office facilities.These can be used on the last day, which is focused on Wind Empowerment’s internal processes, so fewer local participants are expected. During days 10-13 however, Wind Empowerment expects to have more than 150 participants, i.e. multiple state government participants from rural development, renewable energy and poverty alleviation departments as well as NGOs, universities and private entrepreneurs involved in rural development issues.

The conference programme and all other relevant information is compiled over at WEIndia2018.