Renewable Resources of Energy in Afghanistan
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Katedra Studiów Politycznych
Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie
Publication date: 2014-03-31
JoMS 2014;20(1):183-206
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
One of the main problems of the contemporary Afghanistan is the lack
of energy. To solve this problem is one of the main challenges for Afghanistan,
as, based on the estimates of the Afghan Ministry of Energy and Water,
in 2012 only 33% of Afghan population had access to electricity.
Afghanistan has sizable deposits of coal, crude oil and natural gas.
Although reserves of traditional sources of energy are estimated to be
at least sizable and potentially even abundant, the lack of industrial and
transport infrastructure, causes that it is expected that decades will pass
before those resources will be fully exploited. And it creates opportunity
for a development of alternative sources of energy and among those, so
called renewable resources.
Afghanistan is among the poorest countries in the world. After more
than thirty years of conflict its economy is in shambles and the whole
country is simply devastated. At the same time Afghanistan holds a great
potential in the renewable energy resources. They are so significant, that in
favorable conditions much of Afghanistan electric power generation could
be based on those resources. The most obvious is a of hydroelectric power.
The other, potential sources of energy in Afghanistan could be geothermal
springs, solar energy and wind. The other, worth mentioning, is an issue
of biomass and biogas and its use as a source of energy in Afghanistan.
All those resources of renewable energy could be in the future the base of
Afghanistan energetical sector.