An April 22, 2010 BBC News feature – In Pictures: Life-saving stoves in the Congo
Thanks to Kirk Smith, krksmith@berkeley.edu, for this information:
Subject: Wireless Innovation Prize winner
Our team, which includes our research group at the SPH at UCB; three small Berkeley companies (BioLite, Electronically Monitoring Ecosystems, and Berkeley Air Monitoring Group); and the Department of Environmental Health Engineering at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai was awarded first place in this competition to develop wireless versions of our household monitoring devices, starting with the SUMS (stove use monitors).
We hope to have it proven and ready to use in the trials and then the roll out for the Indian National Cookstove Initiative and for use by groups around the world wishing to validate carbon credits for stove programs on the international carbon market. It also can serve as the basis for other devices to remotely and efficiently monitor and verify the use and effectiveness of household health and energy interventions for research, program evaluation, and user feedback.
See http://project.vodafone-us.com/winners-2010-stoves.html
VODAFONE AMERICAS FOUNDATION AND mHEALTH ALLIANCE ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF WIRELESS INNOVATION COMPETITIONS
REDWOOD CITY, CA (April 19, 2010) – At the Global Philanthropy Forum Conference today, The Vodafone Americas Foundation and mHealth Alliance announced the winners of the second annual Wireless Innovation Project™ and the first mHealth Alliance Award for innovation in mobile health (mHealth). The winning projects, which together will be awarded $650,000 in cash and prizes, were selected for their ability to leverage wireless technology to help meet challenges faced in developing countries, including access to clean air, medical care, and financial services for the rural poor. The award will help bring each project to the next stages of implementation and scale.
“As someone from the wireless industry, I’m proud to be associated with these winners,” said Terry Kramer, president of Vodafone Americas Foundation. “We’ve selected three outstanding innovations that cover a wide spectrum of issues, and have the ability to help millions of people.”
This year’s winners include:
1st Place ($300,000 winner) – 100 Million Stoves
Approximately 700 million households, including the poorest half of the world population rely on fire and simple stoves for cooking. Smoke and exposure from these stoves are responsible for causing premature deaths for 1.5 million women and children as well as contributing to climate change. With the potential to improve health, air quality, reduce greenhouse gases and save lives, 100 Million Stoves is a simple wireless stove use monitoring system (SUMS) that can be attached to the millions of new low-emission stoves being used in developing regions. Being developed at the University of California at Berkeley for initial application in India, this groundbreaking wireless technology will help assess the impact of household energy programs, enable feedback from users, and provide transparent verification of carbon credits.
GROBLERSDAL, South Africa – Thandeka Mabuza’s small-scale dairy farm, on the banks of the Olifants River, gives off hardly any of the earthy smell you might expect from a thriving dairy operation.
But the lack of manure odour is hardly the only benefit from the farm’s pioneering biogas dairy. By using vats to digest cow dung and then harvesting and burning the methane, Mabuza now produces electricity for her house and barns.
“This project is a triple win situation,” said the former agricultural extension officer with the South African department of agriculture and land affairs. “I can confirm that through turning manure into energy, I have reduced my electricity bill by a quarter. And I am preventing deforestation by reducing destructive harvesting of fuel wood,” a major source of power for many small farming operations.
The 12-hectare farm in South Africa’s Limpopo province, about 150 kilometres (94 miles) northeast of Pretoria, has a 16 dairy cows, whose manure is fed into three anaerobic digesters. The resulting gas is then burned to produce electricity, Mabuza said.
The fermentation process benefits the farm both by offering a way to dispose of manure and by producing electricity, she said.
Mabuza invested more than $6,700 in the project in 2007, after attending a biogas conference in Nairobi. She became interested in biogas after learning in her government job that livestock contribute more to global warming than vehicles.
“With new research suggesting that methane emission by livestock is higher than previously estimated, I said to myself, ‘I will go into dairy production with environmentally friendly production knowledge in my mind and it is going to define my business,'” she said.
“Livestock has been my love and I engaged technical people who assisted me in designing diets for my cows to eat better, stay more energetic and secrete smaller amounts of the offensive gas,” she said.
COWS A MAJOR SOURCE OF METHANE
Dairy farming plays an important role in driving climate change, as cows emit large quantities of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases.
According to a 2006 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report , the entire livestock commodity chain, from land use and feed production to livestock waste and product processing, contributes about 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
On Mabuza’s farm, the bio-slurry from the digesters, after the methane is captured, is used as an organic fertiliser to produce food crops such as tomatoes, vegetables and maize that she sells in the nearby town of Groblersdal.
At the farm, cow dung from specially adapted cattle sheds is mixed with water and channeled into fermentation pits.
The resulting gas produced as a by-product of this fermentation is collected in a simple storage tank and piped directly into the farmer’s home and her milking parlour to provide energy for cooking, laundry and lighting.
“Burning biogas is much cleaner than burning woody biomass. Apart from being smokeless, it emits only carbon dioxide and water to the atmosphere during combustion whereas a wood fire generates a much greater level of global warming and pollution,” she said.
“This technology improves hygienic conditions, especially for women and children, by eliminating indoor air pollution and by stimulating better management of animal dung since livestock stables are cleaned and the dung fed into the digester on a daily basis,” she said.
“We have to bring a balance between feeding the nation and protecting the environment as farmers,” Mabuza added. “I feel the dairy sector should be pro-active and not wait for legislation to be put in place when it comes to climate change.”
After using Mabuza’s project as a yardstick, the Limpopo provincial government has started to roll out biogas technology to nearby villages. So far more than 300 villages in the district use biogas.
“People’s living conditions and the environment have improved, forests are protected and the labour force has more time for agricultural production. A large amount of straw, which was previously burned, is now put into biogas tanks to ferment. This further reduces air pollution from smoke and helps produce high-quality organic fertilizer,” she said.
The organic sludge left over from the manure and straw fermentation process is also increasing crop yields in the area, said Zola Majavu, a local villager.
As well, biogas units reduce the risk of manure contaminating rivers and landfills and lower the demand for wood and charcoal, which are implicated in both climate change and respiratory illnesses.
Energy In Common: New Microfinance Venture Fights Poverty with Clean Energy
Renewable energy and microfinance are among the hottest buzzwords of the past few years. Now, Australian entrepreneur Hugh Whalan and New York energy specialist Scott Tudman are bringing the two together in Energy In Common, a new venture with the ambitious goal of delivering clean energy to 15 million people in five years, all the while fighting poverty by empowering developing world entrepreneurs through microloans.
The projects being funded have a clear sustainability focus — such as solar-powered lighting systems in Ghana — lowering energy reliance and cost for local small-business owners and ordinary citizens. At the same time, lenders are able to see exactly where their money goes, adding transparency to the carbon offsets they receive for lending.
We sat down with Whalen to ask a few questions about the venture, how it came together and what makes it smarter than other alternatives.
Huffington Post: Carbon offsets have been notoriously criticized as a financial smoke screen and an environmental bandaid. How does EIC bring transparency to the process, offer accountability for where investments are going and show a tangible, real-world effect on the environment?
Hugh Whalan: Carbon offsets are a neat little way of financially incentivizing projects that generate emission reductions. The trouble is, the carbon market rewards sophisticated companies which build enormous projects — very few notice the tiny projects that make the most difference to the very poor. That’s where we think we can make a difference.
At EIC, we have developed a model to accurately measure the emission reductions that occur as a result of each and every loan. Through detailed questionnaires before, during and after the loan, and in-depth field surveys conducted by both us and independent auditing firms, we can calculate the carbon offsets our community helped to create. So our model not only helps to channel valuable funding into energy solutions for those that need it most, but also helps to channel funding into fighting climate change at the same time.
HP: How do you recruit and select entrepreneurs whose projects to invest in?
HW: With our trusted field partners (microfinance institutions), we have established a set of guidelines to help us find and support capable entrepreneurs, and ensure our loans are utilized to not only alleviate poverty, but also reduce emissions. In many instances, we are helping our partner organizations start energy lending programs from scratch.
EIC lenders can then choose to provide funding for a range of solutions such as LED lamps, clean burning stoves and solar home systems. We anticipate moving into solar drip irrigation and biogas digesters in the near future.
HP: Could you explain the whole concept of selling emission reductions as carbon offsets, how you calculate these and what they mean for both entrepreneurs and lenders?
HW: For our community of lenders, carbon offsets are a great way to play an active role in the fight against climate change. As our lenders are able to purchase the emission reductions created by the exact entrepreneurs they have lent to, they can see the human face behind their purchase thus making it far more personal.
100% of the funds from the purchase of these carbon offsets goes straight back into finding and funding even more entrepreneurs in need. In the longer term, the funding of emission reduction projects significantly benefits the poor as the impending effects of climate change will hit the developing world the hardest. Not only that, these same effects are predicted to further hinder efforts to reduce poverty.
HP: How did the EIC team come together?
HW: Most of us know each other from work in the carbon or energy markets. We saw the need for an organization to focus exclusively on very small scale energy projects which alleviate poverty.
We developed EIC as a way to bring attention and resources to the problem of energy and poverty in a way which was scaleable and could reach 15 million people within 5 years.
HP: The correlation between clean energy and poverty isn’t necessarily something people think about, but it’s there. What’s your plan for ending the latter via the former?
HW: For billions of people, gaining access to energy is a time consuming, and expensive process. Families must dedicate hours every day to the collection of firewood. Any other fuels they have access to, such as kerosene, are not only incredibly expensive — often costing a whopping 30% of a family’s income — but also horribly inefficient.
Green energy significantly reduces the use of expensive energy resources. It is reliable, accessible, safe, and economical. It is a real solution to poverty which makes things like studying after dark, refrigerating medicine and vaccines and pumping clean water to remote community’s possibilities, not just dreams.
UC Berkeley Professor to Serve as New Clean Energy Adviser – The Daily Californian Online
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week appointed a UC Berkeley professor to serve as a new type of adviser on clean energy issues for countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Daniel Kammen, a professor in the campus’s Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Department of Nuclear Engineering, will serve as one of three senior fellows for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. The partnership was proposed by President Barack Obama in April 2009 to encourage clean energy development.
“This position is kind of a new channel of discussion between nations, and it’s also … a nice challenge,” Kammen said.
According to Kammen, two of his first projects will be improving the efficiency of stoves and health in Central America and expanding support of solar and wind energy efforts in North America.
“It would be ideal to see better science and deployment networks in the Americas on clean energy, and to expand the support for energy efficiency,” he said in an e-mail.
Kammen said while other countries like Chile are ahead of the U.S. in some areas of clean energy, the U.S. still has the most research and development activity.
“We have a lot to offer other countries,” he said. “But I think this is much more of a two-way dialogue.”
Still, Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based research group, said local communities have to carefully consider what outside advisers say because while the careers of the advisers continue, the social cost paid by these communities for following the advice is often high, and the advice cannot be retroactively validated.
Birns said the U.S. government has often hired university consultants who have provided advice that served the political desires of policy makers rather than the needs of the country being advised.
“It would be very good if consultants are evaluated on the nature of their consultation rather than on whether they’re saying things that the government wants them to say,” he said.
We’re creating an index on our homepage that will track the price of charcoal around the world. The information could be helpful to researchers and entrepreneurs.
We’d like to ask subscribers of the list to help us build the index by providing us with the following information:
- 1. Location, Country, Date
- 2. Unit of measure (wt. or volume). We’ll do the conversion on this end.
- 3. Cost in local currency
- 4. Optional information: cost of competing biomass fuel. For example, woodfuel or briquettes. And, if at all possible, cost of LPG, kerosene, or whatever the next fuel option available locally by volume or weight.
Contact: index@charcoalproject.org
J Kim Chaix
The Charcoal Project,
www.charcoalproject.org
(+1) 917.378.8670
Below are links to recent posts to the Smoke in the Kitchen website at: http://www.smokeinthekitchen.com/
- Apr 17, 2010 – Indian Government prepares Action Plan for Improved Cookstoves Deployment
- Apr 9, 2010 – Shimoga’s Village Health Workers Campaign on Indoor Air Pollution
- Apr 1, 2010 – Is Kitchen Smoke Killing the Monsoons?
Secretary Clinton Announces New Initiatives Under the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas
Washington, DC, April 15, 2010
Energy ministers from across the hemisphere gathered today at the Energy and Climate Ministerial of the Americas hosted by U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu. The Ministerial is part of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), which President Barack Obama invited all democratically-elected governments to join in April 2009 at the Summit of the Americas. ECPA is comprised of voluntary initiatives focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fossil fuels, infrastructure, and energy poverty.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton underscored the United States’ commitment to help governments achieve low carbon economic growth. Secretary Clinton highlighted new initiatives that the Department of State is sponsoring under ECPA to expand energy and climate cooperation in the Americas. The Secretary also announced the expansion of ECPA climate cooperation to include future initiatives that address sustainable landscapes (forestry and land use) and adaptation.
- Advancing Sustainable Energy in the Caribbean: Department of State assistance to the Organization of American States will support a dialogue with Caribbean energy officials and institutions, donor governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector to explore Caribbean indigenous resources and the potential role of electrical interconnections via sub-sea cables. To accelerate clean energy deployment, the initiative will also provide legal and technical advice to governments considering new renewable energy projects.
- Strengthening Central American Energy and Environmental Security: Central America, like the Caribbean, is a region with significant renewable energy potential, but a high dependence on imported fossil fuels for power generation. The initiative will support Central America’s long commitment to integrate power markets and activities that promote the region’s clean energy development. The initiative will also help Central American and Caribbean partners start moving from plans to action on climate change adaptation.
- Senior ECPA Fellows: Secretary Clinton named three U.S. scientists to serve as Senior ECPA Fellows to the Americas: 1) Dr. Daniel Kammen, Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley; 2) Dr. Ruth Defries, Professor of Sustainable Development in Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology; and 3) Dr. Gerry Galloway, Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland. They will travel to the hemisphere to provide advice, share experiences, and consult with regional counterparts on clean energy, sustainable landscapes, and adaptation. Considering the scientific expertise that exists within the Hemisphere, Secretary Clinton invited other governments to also name Senior ECPA Fellows from academia and the private sector.
- Advancing Sustainable Biomass Energy: The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are inviting interested countries to collaborate on scientific exchanges to advance renewable biomass energy that is sustainable. The initiative aims to generate and share information that can be applied by participating ECPA countries for expanding production and usage of renewable biomass for energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while minimizing impacts on natural resources. USDA will serve as the U.S. technical lead agency and will coordinate U.S. government technical assistance to partners in the region.
- Peace Corps Renewable Energy and Climate Change Initiative: Peace Corps will train its more than 2,000 volunteers placed in the rural areas of the Americas working on renewable energy and climate change. Funding provided by the Department of State will support volunteers’ efforts to address energy poverty by using small grants and local training to build the capacity of rural communities. Volunteers will introduce energy-efficient practices and alternative-energy technologies, including small-scale solar panels, cook stoves, small wind turbines and other energy-efficiency solutions.
- Promoting Shale Gas in the Americas: The Department of State, working through the U.S. Geological Survey, proposes to collaborate with selected countries to examine the potential for developing unconventional natural gas resources, including gas from shale.
- Cooperating on Sustainable Urban Development and Planning: In support of Brazil’s ECPA initiative “Building with Energy Efficiency and Sustainability,” which was launched at the World Urban Forum on March 25, the Department of State will provide funding to support better urban planning in the hemisphere. This will include capacity building for urban officials; technical and educational exchanges; a forum for highlighting best practices; and supporting and developing governmental, non-governmental and academic institutions among participating countries.
Leaders of the Western Hemisphere recognize that energy is fundamental to sustainable development and they are committed to expanding cooperation to address the urgent and intertwined challenges of energy security and climate change. Further information is available at: http://www.ECPAmericas.org.
Sustainable Production of Commercial Woodfuel: Lessons and Guidance from Two Strategies – ESMAP, 2010 (pdf, full-text)
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
2 METHODS, SCOPE AND FOCUS – WHAT THIS BOOKLET PROVIDES
3 SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY BASED WOODFUEL PRODUCTION IN AFRICA
3.1 THE EMERGENCE OF CBWP.
3.2 MAIN FEATURES OF CBWP
3.3 EXPERIENCE OF CBWP IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRI
3.3.1 Niger
3.3.2 Senegal
3.3.3 Madagascar
3.3.4 Rwanda
3.4 WRAPPING UP THE EXPERIENCE FROM CBWP: SWOT ANALYSIS .
3.5 LESSONS LEARNED FROM CBWP
3.6 RECOMMENDATIONS
4 FOREST REPLACEMENT ASSOCIATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA
4.1 THE EMERGENCE OF FRA ..
4.2 MAIN FEATURES OF FRAS
4.3 EXPERIENCE OF FRA IN LATIN AMERICA
4.3.1 Brazil
4.3.2 Nicaragua
4.4 WRAPPING UP THE EXPERIENCE FROM FRA: SWOT ANALYSIS
4.5 LESSONS LEARNED FROM FRA
4.6 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FRAS
5 GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF COMMERCIAL WOODFUEL
6 REFERENCES
At India’s Barefoot College, rural women are being empowered as solar engineers who literally bring light to their villages.
At the Barefoot College in Tilonia, 100km from Jaipur, capital of India’s western desert state of Rajasthan, Citu, Mirabelle and Bianca – three middle-aged, semi-literate African women – are engrossed in assembling solar lamps.
The three, who have been here for two months, will train another 16 weeks, learning about charge controllers, inverters, core-winding, deciphering of printed circuit boards, testing, wiring, installation, and repair and maintenance of solar panels. After six months of hands-on training, they will return home to install solar units in their villages, dispelling the darkness forever.
Thanks to these empowered women, girls who graze cattle back home during the day will then be able to attend school at night; other women wouldn’t have to choke over sooty smoke from paraffin or kerosene lamps as they cook; pumps will be able to draw water, and ration shops will be able to stay open till late. These women from far-flung countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Niger, Cameroon and Mauritania are part of a programme which began six years ago by the Barefoot College, a non-governmental organisation in India that has coached many rural Indian and foreign women to make and install solar lamps free of cost.
The Barefoot College began in 1972 with the belief that “solutions to rural problems lie within the community”. The college, which has bagged many international awards for its innovative approach to empowering poor and rural women, encourages practical knowledge and skills rather than paper qualifications.
