Nepal’s Renewable Push Seeks Private Capital and Local Enterprise

By Amara Osei

At the Alternative Energy Promotion Center’s 30th anniversary ceremony in Kathmandu on Wednesday, Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said Nepal’s renewable-energy strategy should move beyond subsidy-based programs alone.

The minister put three components at the center of his proposal: private-sector investment, new technology and local entrepreneurship. In his words, renewable energy “should not be limited to subsidy-based programs but should be linked with private sector investment, new technology, and local entrepreneurship.”

Shrestha said the achievements of the last three decades were not enough. He said renewable energy should underpin production, entrepreneurship, employment and economic prosperity.

What changes after 30 years?

Shrestha used the anniversary to reject the idea that three decades of progress were enough. He said the next phase should connect three drivers: private-sector investment, new technology and local entrepreneurship.

The speech did not specify an investment amount, a project pipeline or a schedule for the private-capital push. Shrestha also did not identify the new technology his proposal calls for. Those omissions leave the government’s three-part formula as a policy signal rather than a financeable program.

He did not reject subsidies. He said they should not be the sector’s only organizing mechanism. According to Shrestha, private investment, newer technology and local entrepreneurship should accompany the sector’s existing policy base.

For investors, that is a broader mandate than a conventional subsidy announcement. Shrestha linked renewable energy to economic outcomes, including production, enterprise, jobs and prosperity, rather than presenting it solely as an energy-supply measure.

Why does the system need decentralization?

Shrestha tied his call for a new investment model to the risk of climate change. He described development of decentralized and distributed renewable-energy systems alongside the central energy system as inevitable.

That approach does not discard the central system. It changes how renewable capacity is organized, with geographically distributed systems operating alongside the central energy system, according to Shrestha.

The minister offered no numerical target for decentralized capacity, no financing plan and no implementation timetable. His framing makes decentralization a structural response to climate risk, but the address leaves the investment structure and implementation sequence unresolved.

The proposal also links national energy-system planning with municipality-level research. Under Shrestha’s model, local studies will supply the evidence for plans in the LP gas-free concept.

What must municipalities do for an LP gas-free transition?

The government is preparing to advance the concept of LP gas-free municipalities in the coming days, Shrestha said. He called the campaign “not just an energy program but also a new practice for the economic development of local levels and energy self-sufficiency.”

The Alternative Energy Promotion Center has an important role in putting that concept into practice, according to Shrestha. The center must first study each municipality’s energy potential, demand, consumption and future needs, then formulate plans.

That sequence gives the campaign an operational structure. First comes a municipality-level assessment of available energy, demand, current consumption and future needs. The findings then provide the basis for local plans under Shrestha’s framework.

Shrestha did not name any participating municipalities. He also gave no LP gas phase-out schedule, funding requirement or private-investment allocation for the campaign. The announcement sets a direction for local planning without yet defining a market timetable.

For local businesses, Shrestha’s proposal assigns entrepreneurship a role alongside investment and technology. For private investors, the opportunity depends on the municipal studies and plans that the center is expected to produce, under the minister’s framework.

The next checkpoint is concrete: funded projects must connect new technology with private capital, municipal plans must reflect local demand and consumption, and local entrepreneurs must build production and jobs around renewable energy.

The test is a named municipal pipeline with financing, deadlines and private-sector participation. Without those outputs, Shrestha’s framework remains a policy signal rather than a bankable strategy.