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Kathmandu / AFP
After enduring endless blackouts in Nepal’s months-long and ongoing national fuel crisis, management consultant Pankaj Shrestha finally splurged on a set of solar panels for his home in Kathmandu.
“First there was no cooking gas available, so we bought an electric cooker. But then there was no electricity, so how could we cook anything?” the 52-year-old asked. With power outages lasting up to 15 hours a day and the price of diesel used to power generators soaring, the Himalayan nation’s solar industry is eyeing a boom in sales.
Although solar panels are unaffordable for millions of poor Nepalis, the industry is confident the crisis will spur the country’s frustrated middle-class to invest in the renewable energy.
“We have already seen a 10 percent increase each year in the number of houses using solar energy,” said Ram Prasad Dhital, chief of the state-run Alternative Energy Promotion Centre.
“But as interest develops in urban areas after the fuel crisis, we expect (the industry) to grow exponentially in coming years,” said Dhital, describing solar as “the ideal option” for many in the power-starved country. Landlocked Nepal has historically relied on neighbouring India for petrol, diesel and cooking gas, but these and other critical supplies have slowed to a trickle since a border blockade kicked off more than four months ago. Nepal’s Madhesi ethnic minority has blocked a key border crossing with India, in protest over a new national constitution adopted in September that they say denies them political representation.
Overnight queues at petrol pumps are routine and a black market for smuggled diesel and cooking gas thrives, as government talks fail to resolve the crisis.