Sustainable Thermal Energy Service Partnerships (STEPs)

我们提出的研究将解决发展中国家农村地区提供热能服务的挑战，预计到2030年，那里可能仍有超过26亿人得不到服务。这项研究将研究使用不同方法为烹饪、空间供暖和卫生设施提供热能的现有经验。这项研究将研究一种名为“按服务收费”的特定商业模式(用户为所提供的能源服务付费)以及在农村地区提供热能的不同能源交付选择。按服务收费的做法依赖于私营服务提供者提供服务，而不是收取少量的月费。私人提供商进行投资，最终用户可以受益于一项服务，而不必预先支付大笔金额。在人们买不起太阳能热水器的农村地区，这一点尤为重要。在一些非洲国家推广太阳能家用系统(以及液化石油气)时，已经相当成功地采用了按服务费收费的办法。这项研究将为将这一点推广到热能服务领域创造条件。这项研究将研究适用的能源转换和最终用途应用技术，分析制度安排，开发需要实施的商业和企业模式，以促进农村地区的热能服务。研究将分析政府和私人伙伴在形成农村地区热能等能源服务的公私伙伴关系(PPP)模式方面的各自作用。它将研究与这一问题相关的创新融资模式。所有这些组成部分都是相互关联的，并有助于该模式的可持续性。在这些广泛研究的基础上，热能服务的可持续模式的描述将发展为一般的公私伙伴关系模式。将就研究结果撰写学术出版物和报告，以解决这一领域的研究差距。收费服务热能服务模式将用于影响莱索托农村能源试点项目的实施，研究小组将在实施期间向莱索托政府提供支助。将从实施中吸取经验教训，并探讨在第二个发展中国家--肯尼亚推广的可能性。

The research we propose will address the challenge of thermal energy service delivery in rural areas of developing countries, where it is projected that more than 2.6 billion people could remain without service in 2030. The research will study the existing experience in providing thermal energy for cooking, space heating and sanitation using different approaches. The research will study a particular business model called "fee-for-service" (where users pay for the energy service delivered) and different energy delivery options to provide thermal energy in rural places. The fee-for service approach relies on the delivery of a service by a private provider against a small monthly fee. The private provider makes the investment and the end-users can benefit of a service without having to pay large sum up-front. This is of particular importance in rural areas where people cannot afford to pay for a Solar Water Heater. The fee-for-service approach has been quite successfully used for the dissemination of Solar Home Systems (and also LPG) in a number of African countries. This research will build the conditions to replicate this to the sector of thermal energy services. This research will study applicable energy conversion and end-use application technologies, analyse institutional arrangements, develop business and enterprise models which needs to be implemented to promote thermal energy services in rural areas developing countries The research will analyse the respective role of government and private partners to form Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) models for energy services like thermal energy in rural areas. It will study innovative financing models that are relevant to the issue. All these components are linked and contribute to the sustainability of the model. Based on these extensive research the description of a sustainable model for thermal energy services will be developed as a generic Public-Private-Partnership model. Scholarly publications and reports will be written on the research findings to address the research gap in this area. The fee-for service thermal energy service model will be used to influence the implementation of a rural energy pilot project in Lesotho and support will be provided by the team of researchers to the government of Lesotho during implementation. Lessons will be drawn from the implementation and possibility for replication will have been explored in a second developing country -Kenya.