RURAL INDUSTRIES

Industries such as agriculture, mining and oil and gas are established in remote areas far from the region’s electrical grid. The costs are frequently prohibitive to use the grid as a source of energy to run their businesses. Energy costs are one of the most significant factors in
determining profitability for these companies’ located in rural regions. There are many energy solutions used today including gas, diesel, ethanol, even small hydropower generating facilities that are both costly and not environmentally friendly. As significant users of the country’s energy supply the governments have been mandating that they incorporate energy technology solutions that are less taxing to the region’s overall energy supply and less harmful to the environment all of which comes as major expense to these industrial users.

Solar power has now become a very effective global solution to these challenges for rural industries. In the past the solar solutions were not only costly solutions, they seldom supplied enough energy to make a significant difference. However this has changed in the last decade as
the costs for deploying these technologies and installations have and continue to decrease by double digits annually. Furthermore, the efficiencies of the technology have improved almost as much as the cost continues to decline. The accelerated return on investment schedule creating a compelling financial case for rural industrial users has created a global boom for the solar power industry. Companies are building solar fields not only for their own commercial energy requirements but are using Distributed Power Processing benefits to sell additional unused energy back to the national grid or to the local rural communities.

The cost of energy per unit continues to increase due to higher electricity and diesel prices while the prices for renewable energy such as solar power has been falling considerably during the last few years which is why industries in rural regions are currently turning their attention more and more to renewable energies. Navigant an (international business consulting firm) expects the global solar-power market for mining companies may grow to about $2 billion a year by 2022. Many countries support these solar energy solutions for rural industries and continue to offer grants and low interest loan incentives to help facilitate this increased commitment to a clean, renewable, efficient energy source. In 2015 the Agricultural Bank of China issued almost US$1 billion worth of green bonds, raising funds to tackle the air pollution problem and support renewable energy initiatives.