A research collaboration investigating energy access and development cooperation in Eastern Africa
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Stoves charging phones
In the post below, we mentioned two very fresh approaches changing the cookstove landscape from dissemination to market penetration. We also mentioned that the stoves in question have been changing. While some "traditional" stoves like the Rocket are being redesigned and mass manufactured for higher quality, there have also been some serious stove feature advancements.
Here's a look at a stove from BioLite that uses thermoelectric generation to provide charging services, either for LEDs or a mobile phone, for a target price of $20:
Read more about the BioLite stove at The Charcoal Project and in Fast Company.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Business innovation and improved cookstoves
The world of improved cookstoves has become increasingly more interesting with greater technological and business innovation in the sector. The viability of carbon financed activities (both voluntary and compliant) with new rules and programmatic approaches, has drawn greater interest from private sector actors, while advances in cookstove design and manufacturing have made these new implementation models feasible. Below are two examples of innovative approaches we've been excited about:
WorldStove's LuciaStove and INYENYERI
Photo credit: Jonathan Kalan |
One of the latest deployments of the LuciaStove is underway by INYENYERI, a startup Rwandan social benefit company. A few of us had the good fortune of learning about INYENYERI in great depth from the source - founder Eric Reynolds and marketing director Jean Bosco Musana - on a picturesque shore overlooking Lake Kivu earlier this summer. INYENYERI brings an aggressive and refreshing approach to the household energy challenge, and will piloting a number of varying business models during their market research phase this year. For more information, have a look at profiles by the New York Times and NextBillion, as well as their August newsletter.
The Paradigm Project
The Paradigm Project has a goal of bringing 5 million improved cookstoves to the world by 2020, and is built around a stove that is perhaps more familiar to the broader household energy community - the Rocket stove. Carbon finance is integral to Paradigm's model, allowing them to sell both imported and locally produced versions of the stoves at subsidized prices. While many improved cooking stove projects and enterprises are underway with similar logic, the Paradigm Project is set apart by its first-in-class marketing. Check out the trailer for their self-produced series on stoves and energy poverty, "Stoveman", below, and make sure to visit their website.
Two recommendations for peer-reviewed literature related to this post:
2011, Shrimali et al, Improved stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models (Energy Policy)
2009, Bailis et al, Arresting the Killer in the Kitchen: The promises and pitfalls of commercializing improved cookstoves (World Development)
Labels:
carbon finance,
cookstoves,
kenya,
rwanda
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