Katuwal Hari
Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX, 76401, USA.
Heliyon. 2022 Aug 6;8(8):e10106. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10106. eCollection 2022 Aug.
Using nationally representative survey data, we identify and examine the determinants of biogas technology adoption in Nepal. Because of its dependence on biomass energy, the Government of Nepal has been promoting alternative sources of energy, particularly for rural households. Biogas has been identified and promoted as a viable alternative renewable energy source alongside many others. In addition to providing low-cost sustainable energy, biogas offers a wide range of additional benefits. Because of the many benefits of adopting biogas, the Government of Nepal has made expanding biogas technology a priority. Despite the policy priority and several benefits, the drivers and barriers to household-level biogas technology adoption have not been investigated at the national level. We use newly collected survey data to investigate the determinants and barriers to biogas adoption. We use probit models to quantify the marginal effect of these determinants on biogas adoption. Our analysis shows that income, land holdings and the number of livestock are key socioeconomic determinants of biogas adoption in Nepal. Our result suggests that households in the country's hilly region are less likely to adopt biogas indicating the difficulty of installing and operating biogas in mountain and hilly regions. The findings also indicate that lack of access to a bank and the number of biogas service providers are among the main obstacles to biogas adoption in Nepal. Our findings provide information that can make valuable contributions to the energy policy of developing countries for the sustainable development of alternative energies.
利用具有全国代表性的调查数据，我们确定并研究了尼泊尔沼气技术采用的决定因素。由于尼泊尔对生物质能源的依赖，尼泊尔政府一直在推广替代能源，特别是针对农村家庭。沼气已被确定并作为一种可行的替代可再生能源与许多其他能源一起得到推广。除了提供低成本的可持续能源外，沼气还带来了广泛的额外益处。由于采用沼气有诸多好处，尼泊尔政府已将扩大沼气技术作为优先事项。尽管有政策上的优先考虑和诸多益处，但家庭层面采用沼气技术的驱动因素和障碍在国家层面尚未得到研究。我们使用新收集的调查数据来研究沼气采用的决定因素和障碍。我们使用概率模型来量化这些决定因素对沼气采用的边际效应。我们的分析表明，收入、土地持有量和牲畜数量是尼泊尔采用沼气的关键社会经济决定因素。我们的结果表明，该国山区的家庭采用沼气的可能性较小，这表明在山区安装和运营沼气存在困难。研究结果还表明，无法获得银行服务以及沼气服务提供商的数量是尼泊尔采用沼气的主要障碍之一。我们的研究结果提供了可为发展中国家替代能源可持续发展的能源政策做出宝贵贡献的信息。
