The increased use of renewable energy is imperative as a countermeasure to climate change. As with conventional electricity generation technologies, public acceptance of renewables is an important issue, and willingness to pay (WTP) is a widely used indicator to assess such public attitudes. Unfortunately, the literature to date mostly covers developed countries, with few WTP surveys in developing countries. Tackling climate change is an urgent issue for these developing countries; therefore, understanding of public attitudes toward renewables in developing countries is crucial. This study conducted the first survey on WTP for introducing renewable energy in Myanmar. Although Myanmar boasts abundant renewable energy resources, including solar power and biomass in addition to large-scale hydro plants, its resources are not being properly utilized to generate electricity. This study surveyed WTP for power generation by solar photovoltaics, small hydropower, and biomass facilities. The results showed the highest WTP for solar power (USD 1.92) with 10% share in the energy mix, and lower WTP for biomass and small hydropower electricity generations (USD 1.13 and USD 1.17, respectively). Careful public communication is thus crucial for expanding biomass and small-scale hydro power plants.

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In this paper, optimal energy management for a stand-alone hydrokinetic power supply system with a battery storage system is proposed to sufficiently explore hydrokinetic energy for customers at the demand side. The management of power flow aims to optimal energy supply subject to a number of constraints, such as power balance, hydrokinetic power output, and battery capacity. The hydrokinetic turbine is connected with permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), power electronic devices and battery bank. The battery bank is used to store the surplus of energy when the load demand is low and discharges again the stored energy to the load when hydrokinetic power is not sufficient to supply the load. The proposed system can meet the load for every hour of the days without interruption. The average daily load requirement and available hydrokinetic power are calculated for three seasons. In this research, the average daily load requirement of the summer season is chosen because it is the highest in energy consumption from three seasons. The simulation results show that the management of the system is satisfied between available hydrokinetic power and load demand.

The electrification rate of Myanmar is about 40 percent and its improvement is an urgent matter. The Sustainable Development Goal 7 recognizes the importance of energy access and calls for a solution to the Government of Myanmar's plans to reach 100 percent electrification by 2030. To achieve this ambitious plan, both centralized (main-grid extension) and decentralized approaches should be considered. In this study, we focused on distributed mini-grids among electrification options. In Myanmar, as in other developing countries in the region, diesel generators are widely used as power sources of mini-grids. Considering the global trend of reduction of carbon dioxide emission, power sources should be selected carefully. When discussing possible power sources, cost-competitiveness is an important aspect. Therefore, we researched the question: How costcompetitive are mini-grids powered by solar photovoltaics (PVs) compared to conventional diesel power source?We used the primary data collected through interviews and field surveys, and calculated the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of mini-grids. Our results show that solar PVs and batteries are cost-competitive compared with diesel in off-grid areas where diesel fuel prices are much higher than in urban areas. However, to improve efficiency, daytime use of electricity (e.g. productive use) needs to be promoted.