Abstract Biogas technology, as a pro-poor renewable energy source, has been promoted in Uganda since the 1980s by the government and NGOs. However, many of the biogas designs promoted have proved to be too expensive for the average Ugandan to afford. A cheaper flexible balloon digester has been proposed, but there have been lack of evidence on the economic viability of this design. The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic potential of a flexible balloon digester among smallholder farmers in Uganda using the tool of cost-benefit analysis. Primary data were obtained from survey of experimental households and 144 non-biogas households in central Uganda. The results revealed that the net present value was negative and the payback period was greater than the economic life of the digester. However, sensitivity analysis revealed that with a 50% reduction in investment cost the technology is financially viable for 67% of the households and to all households as a group (NPV= UGX5,804,730). The initial investment cost is a critical factor to economic viability and potential technology adoption. We suggest that government and development partners interested in the sector should consider strategies that could reduce the technology cost, for example, by manufacturing low cost balloon digester locally instead of importing prefabricated digesters.

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小农灵活气球沼气池的经济潜力：来自乌干达的案例研究

摘要 沼气技术作为一种有利于穷人的可再生能源，自 1980 年代以来一直由政府和非政府组织在乌干达推广。然而，事实证明，许多推广的沼气设计对于普通乌干达人来说过于昂贵。已经提出了一种更便宜的柔性气球蒸煮器，但缺乏这种设计经济可行性的证据。本研究的目的是使用成本效益分析工具分析乌干达小农户中灵活气球蒸煮器的经济潜力。原始数据来自对乌干达中部试验户和 144 户非沼气户的调查。结果表明，净现值为负，投资回收期大于沼气池的经济寿命。然而，敏感性分析显示，投资成本降低 50% 时，该技术对 67% 的家庭和所有家庭作为一个群体在财务上可行（NPV= UGX5,804,730）。初始投资成本是经济可行性和潜在技术采用的关键因素。我们建议对该行业感兴趣的政府和发展合作伙伴考虑可以降低技术成本的策略，例如，通过在当地制造低成本的气球蒸煮器而不是进口预制蒸煮器。