Is Nepal’s Renewable Energy Subsidy Reaching Poor People of Rural Areas? A Study of Biogas and Solar Home Systems

This paper analyse data from the Nepal Living Standard Survey for the year 2010/11 to determine the extent to which these programs have reached the poor. The Government of Nepal has been providing financial support to promote biogas technology since the 1970s and Solar Home Systems (SHS) since the 1990s. Only 5 percent of households eligible for a biogas subsidy have adopted biogas. Only 2 percent of biogas adopters are below the poverty line, as compared to a poverty rate of 19 percent in all of Nepal. The probability of biogas adoption is increasing in annual per capita consumption. The paper discusses the reasons behind the differences.