In many ways, Afghanistan is the perfect country to start this exploration with.* It’s the last place most people would think to look for renewable energy. Yet it is there in surprisingly large quantities. A good part of the reason for this is the lack of a reliable power supply from the government authorities. People, especially in rural areas, have been left to fend for themselves. Electrical power is decentralized and becoming more so. This is probably a trend we will see across the planet but Afghanistan is one of the first countries headed in that direction as people take control of their own energy needs.

Counting the Kilowatts is an attempt to discover these uncounted and hidden energy sources in areas of the world which are not counted by the big intergovernmental organizations, powerful countries and international conglomerates. I’m looking for the small, the discounted and the unexpected wherever I can find it.

As I looked for data sources, I kept a list of every possible organization that might have data about renewable energy. This became quite a long list. For each country I look at, I will be going through those sources as thoroughly as possible. (Please note that some of these websites may be temporarily offline, outdated, and links may be broken but I check them anyway.)

*The actual reason was simple logistics – it’s the first country on this list, Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output) | Data, which I used as a metric for Worldat100.org. Afghanistan also just happens to be the primary setting for my first novel, An Invisible Woman in Afghanistan which again, was pure chance.