Facilitating Disaster Relief Operations and Sustainable Reconstruction: The Enabling Role of Renewable Energy Technologies

The impetus for developing this guide came from the enormity of the Asian Tsunami disaster in 2004-2005 right on Australia's doorstep, and the inability of the renewable energy community to donate goods and services, highlighted a need to develop an understanding of a pathway with the aid and disaster relief organisations to overcome this situations.

Secondly, the increased debate about climate change globally led us to look at what is being done ion post-disatser reconstruction and to realise that uin manty situations "like" is being replaced with "like" rather than turning around a bad situation to make for a positive, sustainable and environmentally-friendly future.

In 2005, the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) approached the Australian Government, through the Australian Greenhiuse Office, for funding to research the impediments to the uptake of renewable energy products and services within the disatser relief response and aid organisations.

This gude is intended to highlight implications, and to inform and support aid workers in their energy and power considerations. It will highlight practicall, robust and realible examples of sustainable energy technologies that can assist the relief and reconstruction effort, with the ultimate objective of achieving even stronger positive outcomes for the communities that are recovering from the impacts of a disaster event.