A Comparison of Solar and Wind Energy Production in Developing Countries
Abstract
Developing countries currently face major issues surrounding energy production sources and methods namely fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels to create heat and energy has adverse effects on air quality for citizens of the country and the environment due to high carbon dioxide emissions as well as other greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming and climate change. They are also not well suited for off-grid applications required by rural communities. This article identifies the top two most highly invested in renewable technologies among developing countries as Solar and Wind power. In 2017 Wind and Solar gained 54.8B and 115.4B USD respectively in global new investment from developing countries, the next closest renewable technology was small-scale hydropower at 3.0B USD. Both of these production technologies are well suited to replace fossil fuels in these countries as they can be implemented on a wide scale to supply electricity for a main power grid and both of them are modular, so they can be scaled down for off-grid applications in rural communities as well. It was determined that neither of them is clearly superior to the other. The decision to implement one or the other depends heavily on factors such as climate, local price and policies, and the specific application.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
