**8. Social impact of renewable energy technologies in sustainable development**

Renewable energy resources and technologies can serve as one of the key drivers for rural development in the country in a number of ways in:


Renewable energy technologies for rural and semi-urban electrification is more sustainable; suitable for supplying geographically dispersed villages by means of distributed energy often without relying on a national grid. Grid connection to remote and dispersed villages is expensive and technically difficult; therefore, local mini-grids developed from renewable energy sources can be established and serve the purpose of rural electrification either as stand lone power generating unit for a particular village or interconnected with other village generating unit. In this way:


Poverty alleviation objective in the country focuses on rural areas. Hence, development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure can effectively contribute to poverty alleviation in the coming years.
