Dissemination of cooking energy alternatives in India - a review

Energy requirements for cooking account for 36% of total primary energy consumption in India. The rural and urban populaces, depend mainly, on non-commercial fuels to meet their energy needs. Diverse urban growth patterns have led to structural changes in economy, and have important ramifications on energy consumption in household sector. It is observed that India follows income-based ladder starting with fuelwood and ending with sophisticated fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity. This paper discusses cooking energy dissemination in the country with an objective of understanding the underlying socioeconomic factors governing the utilization of various fuels/energy carriers in cooking. The diffusion of renewable energy devices is observed to be far below their estimated potential. Policy interventions required for better dissemination of renewable energy based devices are also discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.