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In remote communities of Canada, diesel is the primary source of electricity and heat. Promoting sustainable and diverse means of heat and power generation is essential to providing reliable and less carbon-intensive energy supply to remote communities. Among renewable energy sources in Canada, biomass is a major source of energy, with wood pellets being a notable contributor. In this study, using wood pellets in a remote community of Canada is investigated using life cycle analysis (LCA). Furthermore, wood pellet combustion is compared with diesel combustion, the most common fossil fuel in these regions. SimaPro (version 8.4.0.0) was used with Ecoinvent 3 as the primary library because of the nature of the feedstock. Harvesting, transportation, sawmill operation, pelletization, and combustion stages are considered in LCA. In doing so, first, life cycle data related to each of these stages are collected with respect to eight impact categories of global warming, ozone depletion, carcinogenic, non-carcinogenic, smog, respiratory effects, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity, and fossil fuel depletion. The results indicate that pelletization and combustion stages have the greatest environmental impact, specifically in terms of non-carcinogenic effects from pelletization and respiratory effects from pellet combustion. Additionally, when comparing wood pellets to diesel, wood pellet combustion exhibits superior performance across various impact categories, particularly in non-carcinogenic effects.

The rise in energy requirements and its shortfall in developing countries have affected socioeconomic life. Communities in remote mountainous regions in Asia are among the most affected by energy deprivation. This study presents the feasibility of an alternate strategy of supplying clean energy to the areas consisting of pristine mountains and forest terrain. Southeast Asia has a much-diversified landscape and varied natural resources, including abundant water resources. The current study is motivated by this abundant supply of streams which provides an excellent environment for run-of-river micro vertical axis water turbines. However, to limit the scope of the study, the rivers and streams flowing in northern areas of Pakistan are taken as the reference. The study proposes a comprehensive answer for supplying low-cost sustainable energy solutions for such remote communities. The suggested solution consists of a preliminary hydrodynamic design using Qblade, further analysis using numerical simulations, and finally, experimental testing in a real-world environment. The results of this study show that the use of microturbines is a very feasible option considering that the power generation density of the microturbine comes out to be approximately 2100 kWh/year/m2, with minimal adverse effects on the environment.

Throughout the developing world, most remote and isolated communities are still without reliable electricity in the twenty-first century, and this is primarily due to the high cost of grid extensions. In communities that do have electricity, they usually rely on diesel generators, though these have high operating and maintenance costs, while also polluting the environment. A more sustainable approach is to deploy microgrids, however, microgrids have a high upfront cost, which is a major obstacle, especially in rural areas of developing countries. This study aims to investigate the parameters that can be influenced to make microgrids more economical for rural electrification. Through sensitivity analyses, five key policy and technology parameters were identified. They include real discount rates, diesel prices, grants, battery chemistry, and operating strategies. The system was then redesigned using scenarios formulated by varying these parameters. Results show that the parameters affect the configuration, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), renewable energy penetration (REP), and pollutant emissions. The study uses three remote communities in the Beni Department of Bolivia as case studies. MDSTool was used as a modeling framework to design the microgrids. The unique insights and lessons learned during the design process are discussed at length because these may be valuable for future microgrid designs for remote communities.