You’re used to being able to flick a switch or turn a dial to turn on the lights, the television or the oven.

Now get this: around two billion people, mostly living in rural areas of developing countries, live without electricity. That’s more than twice the population of the European Union and the United States combined.

Can you imagine what living without electricity would be like? It means more than just missing your favourite TV programmes.

For millions of people it means constant hunger and poverty. Because farmers in developing countries don’t have energy, they often can’t process or store food properly. A lot of the food they grow goes bad. Their families go hungry, and they lose the chance to sell their produce to earn extra money.

Another thing it means is a lot of hard work, especially for women. In many regions, women spend up to five hours a day collecting water and wood for cooking and up to four hours preparing food. In rural sub-Saharan Africa, women carry on average 20 kg of wood five kilometres every day.

Local power with global impact

Extending power lines from the cities to cover rural areas is extremely costly and many developing countries cannot do it. Gasoline and other fuels are usually too expensive.

So rural communities need to develop their own sources of cheap, renewable energy. It’s a key to improving living conditions for rural people.

Renewable energy solutions can also play a part in slowing down global warming. Fuels like coal, natural gas and oil are not renewable (they take millions of years to make!) and they’re certainly not clean. Burning these fuels spews billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Carbon dioxide is one of the major “greenhouse gases” responsible for global warming. FAO estimates that with more investment in renewable energy, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by up to 20 percent.

Find out more about global warming.

Power to the people!

FAO helps developing countries bring clean power to their people.

But energy comes in a lot of different forms. Different countries have different needs and different resources. Deciding on the right combination of energy sources requires sound technical information.

And bringing energy to the communities that need it requires careful planning and effective national energy policies. Finding ways of paying for it requires a clear understanding not only of the costs but also the benefits – for the economy, the environment and public health and nutrition.

FAO helps countries with all these aspects of “energizing” their food production.

OK, so what types of clean energy does FAO promote?

The power of ‘bioenergy’

Bioenergy? What’s that?

Well, it’s a technical word for any energy that is produced from organic matter, usually plants or animal manure. The technical word for the stuff you need to make bioenergy is “biomass”.

And do you know what the most common source of bioenergy is? It’s something you’re pretty familiar with: wood.

For over 2 billion people, particularly in households in developing countries, wood is their main source of energy. FAO’s Forestry Department is working with developing countries to ensure that they have a constantly replenished source of wood energy to meet their needs.

Find out more about FAO’s work in forestry.

But other fast-growing crops can also be grown for fuel. Deforested, degraded and marginal land can be turned into “bioenergy plantations”. This can combat erosion and desertification and restore soil fertility. FAO helps countries decide what sort of plants and what type of land are most suitable for providing sustainable sources of bioenergy to rural communities.

And you don’t have to burn biomass to get energy. There are many ways of turning it into a useful form of energy. For example, you can turn it into gas. Do you know what they call gas produced from biomass? Yes, you guessed it: “biogas”.

When animal manure and other crop residues, are kept in airtight tanks called “digesters”, they produce methane, a gas that can be used for heating, cooking and many other purposes. This can be a really good option in areas where livestock manure is polluting the environment. FAO publishes technical manuals on how to build and operate “biogas” equipment.

Some crops can be cultivated to produce liquid fuels as well. You know what they call fuels produced from biomass? Hey! Right again: “biofuels”.

Get this: less than half the sugar cane in Brazil is used to make sugar. Most of it is used to make ethanol, a fuel for cars. In the United States, some farmers are growing corn to produce ethanol.

Harnessing bioenergy can bring more than just power to rural communities; it can also bring in more money. When biomass becomes recognized as a valuable source of energy, it can also become a valuable source of income for farmers.

Power from the sun, wind and water

The planet is full of energy. You just have to know how to tap into it.

Heat from the sun can be used to dry foods so that they can be stored longer. Think of sun-dried tomatoes. It can also be used to heat water and cook foods.

Wind and water have been used for thousands of years to turn mills.

And now new technologies, like solar panels, small hydro-electric generating stations and wind turbines can turn sunlight, water and wind power directly into electricity. And it can be done on a very small-scale so that communities can manage the power for themselves locally.

FAO keeps its member countries informed about the latest innovations in energy technologies. And when requested, it helps them put this technology to work.

Better stoves mean better lives

In developing countries, families use most of the fuel wood they gather for cooking.

But often their stoves don’t burn the wood very efficiently and they make a lot of smoke.

And this smoke is a serious health problem. Did you know that the World Health Organization has estimated that every year as many as 2 million people in developing countries, the majority under five years of age, die prematurely because of indoor air pollution?

FAO helps countries introduce safer, more efficient stoves in rural communities. It helps poor families save time and energy by reducing the amount of fuelwood they need to cook their meals. And saves lives in the process.