Energy Transitions and Economic Development in Southeast Asia: Energy Infrastructure and the Quality of Life

Based on our field survey in southeast Asia, we discuss an energy transition and people's QOL in this paper. Connections to the national main grid or solar panel electricity supply would not only help people own more or bigger household appliances and access energy-consuming facilities but also improve their QOL. We discuss an energy transition framework for developing countries in relation to improving the quality of life and energy infrastructure. Based on our field research in Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, we posit that we should reconsider the ways to improve people’s quality of life with more energy intensive household equipment and infrastructure. In our mixed-method research, we interviewed about 30 households (quantitative), and our survey (qualitative) yielded over 1,000 responses in each country with a representative national sample.

The energy transition in Southeast Asia is considered to be a shift from solid fuels such as firewood, rice husks and straw to liquid fuels, and then to electricity. Indeed, electricity has been key to the improvement in people’s quality of life in the countries we surveyed. Our research, however, finds significant differences in accessibility to and affordability of electricity between urban and rural households, showing a huge gap of quality of life of people between the two areas. Connections to the main grid and other energy sources greatly affect the quality of life including household appliances ownership. More importantly, connections to solar panel electricity supply in rural areas would assure access to social networks through smartphone ownership. We therefore argue that only by considering these new dimensions of energy poverty, we can find a way for ‘just’ energy transitions and the improved quality of life.