The New Development: A Plan, Not a Reality
Instead of a completed export, what the results clearly document is the launch of the Energy Connectivity in South Asia (ECSA) project. This is a 5 million Euro initiative funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by Expertise France .
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The Project’s Goal: ECSA aims to expand cross-border electricity trade among Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka .
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The Long-Term Ambition: The project is part of a broader vision, sometimes referred to as the Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative (PAGI), which seeks to connect the entire Asia-Pacific region to Europe and Africa through transmission lines .
Potential Future for Exports
While the report is based on a vision for the future rather than a past event, it points to a potential pathway for Nepal’s surplus energy to one day reach European markets. A key element is the concept of Nepal developing an industry around green hydrogen for export .
This possibility was raised in discussions by Kulman Ghising, the former Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, who suggested that clean energy could be a major export for the European market in the future . However, it is essential to reiterate that this remains a forward-looking concept, not a description of an event that has already taken place.
