“The fastest and cheapest way to give everybody access to energy is through small-scale energy solutions locally, so that the energy use is close to energy sources,” Rodrigo Lozano says.
In the last decades, the technology to generate electricity from residual biomass from several crops have been enhanced. However, few studies have concentrated on identifying suitable locations for small-scale gasifiers in rural areas.
The researchers have studied marginalised municipalities in Mexico with a high to very high poverty index to find suitable places for using residual biomass from locally produced grains. Now, they have identified good locations for these small gasifiers.
“Our results reveal that electricity production with the use of residual biomass can improve the welfare for almost 10 million people and integrate environmental and social dimensions of sustainability by reducing energy poverty,” Rodrigo Lozano says.