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AEPC Renewable Framework and Progress Reports

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Working page
Updated
2026-05-11

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Summary

Primary source for Nepal's off-grid and distributed solar story. AEPC ("Alternative Energy Promotion Centre") is the government institution responsible for rural electrification through renewables, standing alongside (not inside) NEA. It is the operator and financier of the solar-home-system (SHS) programme, community mini-grids, institutional rooftop systems, and the subsidy / concessional-finance channel that rural solar rides on.

What the source covers

Periodic AEPC "Progress Report" / "Renewable Energy Framework" / annual yearbook documents cover:

  • Cumulative SHS installations by district, province, and year
  • Village-scale mini-grid portfolio (locations, capacity, operator)
  • Institutional solar (schools, clinics, govt offices)
  • Improved cookstove and biogas programmes (context, not solar)
  • Subsidy structure and donor-financing channels
  • Policy and regulatory framework for rural renewables

Key data points (approximate, 2021–2024 window)

  • Cumulative SHS installed: ~1.1 million systems (as of ~2021, with additions through 2024)
  • Cumulative SHS capacity: ~80–100 MWp
  • Community mini-grids (operational): ~30 sites, ~1.1 MWp aggregate
  • Institutional solar: ~25,000 sites (rural clinics, schools, telecom, govt offices), ~15 MWp aggregate
  • Geography: Karnali, Sudurpaschim, and remote hill districts of Koshi / Gandaki / Bagmati dominate installations (see Rooftop and Solar Home System Deployment)
  • Subsidy structure: Tiered, with higher subsidies for remote/difficult districts; typical residential SHS subsidy ~30–50% of capex
  • Annual new installations: declining as grid reach expands (grid displaces SHS on economic grounds above ~30 HH/km²), replacement/upgrade cycle becoming dominant

Why AEPC matters strategically

AEPC's relationship with NEA is the most under-discussed institutional story in Nepal solar:

  1. AEPC reaches households NEA cannot. Remote hill and Karnali districts are uneconomic for grid extension at current tariffs; AEPC's subsidized SHS is the only electrification pathway that fits those geographies.

  2. AEPC is the operational home of community-level solar. No mini-grid, no micro-grid, no community solar cooperative in Nepal exists without AEPC technical backstop or finance.

  3. AEPC is the natural host for the agrivoltaic programme. If Agrivoltaics and Land implies a lease-template law and a tariff adder, AEPC's rural footprint and cooperative linkages make it the natural programme administrator — not NEA.

  4. AEPC integrates into the political coalition for solar. The rural-electrification constituency that has sustained AEPC for three decades is the same constituency that would vote for Terai agrivoltaics and Karnali off-grid scale-up.

Documents and subsources

The "AEPC renewable framework" source is a composite of:

  • AEPC Yearbook / Annual Progress Report (annual, typically one-year lag in publication)
  • National Renewable Energy Framework (NREF) 2017 and revisions
  • Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy 2016 and updates
  • AEPC-published feasibility studies for specific mini-grid and institutional projects
  • Donor project completion reports (ADB, WB, EIB, UNDP) that flow through AEPC programmes

Relevance to project

This is the anchor source for:

And it is the first place to look when the question is "how much solar is actually deployed in Nepal total — utility + rooftop + off-grid?", because the DoED / NEA utility-scale figure of roughly 142 MW captures only the first track.

Data-quality notes

  • AEPC yearbooks lag by ~1–2 years in publication.
  • District-level data fidelity is high (AEPC subsidizes per-system; each install has a record) but aggregation into the public yearbook is lagged and sometimes incomplete.
  • The 1.1 M cumulative SHS count includes decommissioned and replaced systems; the operational fleet is likely 700,000–900,000 at any time.
  • Mini-grid reliability / continuous-operation data is uneven; some grids have been dormant between donor-project cycles.

Gaps we would like to close

  • A proper 2024 district-level registry — ideal source for the map layer in Rooftop and Solar Home System Deployment.
  • Operational-status snapshot of the ~30 mini-grids (how many are actually running as of 2024?).
  • AEPC–NEA integration agreement — the grid-edge protocol for when grid reaches an off-grid site.

Limitations

  • Publication lag. AEPC yearbooks lag by 1–2 years; the most recent public yearbook does not capture the current operational fleet.
  • Operational vs. cumulative count. The ~1.1M cumulative SHS figure includes decommissioned and replaced systems; the operational fleet is likely 700,000–900,000 at any time.
  • Mini-grid reliability data uneven. Some mini-grids have been dormant between donor-project cycles; continuous-operation data is not systematically published.
  • Composite source. This page synthesizes multiple AEPC documents (yearbooks, NREF, subsidy policy, donor reports) rather than representing a single published document at a fixed date.

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