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What’s happening in household energy? - BP 48 - November 2002
[top] [end]HEDON XI meetingThe eleventh household energy network meeting (HEDON) took place in Johannesburg, South Africa from 27 to 28 August, to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The aim of the meeting was to finalize project proposals in a number of key aspects of Household Energy (Environment, Small Enterprise, Health, Forestry and Food & Energy Security). Project concepts were developed through an email dialogue in the run-up to the meeting. Projects were sought with real, tangible outputs wherever possible, to capitalize on our strengths as a global network (but not merely networking activities).Contact: Grant Ballard-Tremeer, grant@... [top] [end]Ashden award winnersThe winners of the Ashden Awards for Renewable Energy were announced on 14 March 2002 by HRH The Princess Royal at the Whitley Laing Foundation’s annual awards ceremony in London.Dr. Karve of the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, India, won the first prize of £30,000 for discovering and implementing a unique technology that produces clean fuel from sugarcane waste (see Boiling Point 47 page 16). The judges were impressed by the way in which his project turns a largescale environmental problem (millions of tonnes of sugarcane waste are burned each year in open fields), into a huge income-generating opportunity while providing desperately needed clean and cheap domestic fuel.
Two runners-up each received £7,500: Margaret Owino of Solar Cookers International, Kenya and Irving Williams of AHEAD, Tanzania. Both projects use solar cookers; the first to alleviate severe fuel shortage in refugee camps in Northern Kenya, and the second to reduce illness from water borne diseases, the second highest cause of infant death in Tanzania. [top] [end]Community Fund’s International Grants ProgrammeCommunity Fund is the operating name of the National Lottery Charities Board in the UK, an independent organization that distributes money raised by the British National Lottery to support charities and voluntary and community groups throughout the UK, and to UK agencies working abroad.Application packs for the new international grants programme will be available from mid-July. Applications can then be sent in on a continuous basis throughout the year as there will no longer be a fixed annual deadline. The international programme will make grants to UK NGOs for projects in developing countries to be carried out with local partners. The new programme will focus on making a long-term difference to the lives of the most disadvantaged people by addressing the factors that make people poor and keep them poor. It is important that each project to be funded is based upon an initial analysis of all the causes of disadvantage in the beneficiary community, with a clear strategy for how the project will address a number of these factors. The funding will be targeted on work that contributes to one or more of the following outcomes for the most disadvantaged people:
All applicants will be expected to show their understanding of why certain groups or individuals do not have access to resources, such as health or education - as a result of their gender, ethnicity or age, for example – and how the proposed project can bring about change. Applications should also show how the most disadvantaged people can be enabled to take control of their lives and maintain the benefits brought about by projects. This means that only projects that combine service delivery with capacity building and influencing opinion, or ones where capacity building and influencing opinion alone contribute to the outcomes above will be funded. More information about the programme can be found on our website: www.community-fund.org.uk [top] [end]Charcoal fuel from bagasse - Chardust Ltd. in KenyaChardust Ltd., the small Kenyan company that developed and commercialized the briquette made from charcoal vendor’s waste, has just launched a joint venture with the Chemelil Sugar Company to produce 'CaneCoal', a process which converts waste crushed cane, known as bagasse, into affordable charcoal fuel briquettes which can be burnt in a domestic 'Jiko'.The Chemelil project will establish a foothold in the West Kenya charcoal market by providing a direct substitute for wood charcoal – most of which is illegally harvested from the regions rapidly diminishing forests. Chardust would like to work with any organizations that are able to inform the public and increase awareness of the value of using substitutes to lump wood charcoal. Chemelil produces up to 100 tonnes of surplus bagasse per day, accumulating in massive heaps before being hauled away to be burnt in fallow fields. All four operating sugar factories in Kenya have a similar bagasse disposal problem. Sales of 5 tonnes of CaneCoal per day are anticipated by early in 2003, displacing an equivalent amount of unsustainably harvested lumpwood charcoal. Between 8kg to 10kg of live wood is required to produce one kilo of traditionally kilned charcoal. The Chemelil CaneCoal project is co-financed by the UK’s DFID Business Partnership Programme and seeks to provide a model of corporate social responsibility, sound environmental management and quality energy provision to low income consumers. Some 20 employees will be employed at the 5-tonne per day level of output. Once proven commercially viable, the Chemelil CaneCoal venture has huge replication potential in East Africa and beyond. Chardust is confident that this technology can be used within the coffee and sawmilling industries as well. By salvaging the massive quantities of agri-industrial by-product that goes to waste in East Africa and converting it to a substitute for traditional wood charcoal, whole forests can be spared through a direct reduction in the demand for fuel. Contact: Elsen L. Karstad, briquettes@..., Website: www.chardust.com, Nairobi, Kenya [top] [end]ICS Network in NepalICS (improved Cook Stoves) Network in Nepal, supported by ARECOP and managed by Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal, has launched its own website. The website contains information on various activities of the ICS Network in Nepal, reports and recent publications of the network as well as organization profile of 38 member organizations involved in implementation of ICS programmes in Nepal. The web address is www.icsnetwork.orgContact: Ms. Moon Shrestha, Network Officer, Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal Tel: 977 1 260165, 256819; Fax: 977 1 257922 Email: ics_net@.... [top] [end]Zimbabwe: A new form of household energyAn article in the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe reports that a local company, Firepack Products (Private) Limited, has developed an alternative energy source; an organic gel that is a mixture of water, alcohol and a stabiliser, which can be used for lighting and heating. The fuel costs consumers $45 per litre compared to a cost of $60 for kerosene. The fuel is convenient, non-explosive, odourless, cheaper and a cleaner fuel than others available in the country. The gel is manufactured in Chitungwiza and it is anticipated that 10 000 litres per month will be produced.The organic gel does not produce carbon monoxide when used indoors, is already being utilised commercially, mostly in the hotel and catering industries, where it has become a substitute for methylated spirit, used to heat food. Domestically, it is being used to cook food both in and outdoors and Firepack is also targeting tourists involved in outdoor camping, and truck drivers who use gas to cook during long journeys. [top] [end]Solar Rice CookerA very compact, light weight and easy-to-use Solar Rice cooker has been tested at School of Energy Studies, Pune University, India.
[top] [end]Salient Features
The Institute is willing to supply a set of drawings free to any person who is interested. Contact: K. Munshi, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai - 400 076, India Tel: 91 22 5767822, Fax: 91 22 5767803 Email: munshi@..., munshi999@... [top] [end]Tiny pollution particles may carry large consequences for earth’s water supplyA study by NASA researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, argues that particles of human-produced pollution may be playing a significant role in weakening Earth’s water cycle. The research paper is based on results obtained during the International Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX):‘Through INDOEX we found that aerosols are cutting down sunlight going into the ocean. The energy for the hydrological cycle comes from sunlight. As sunlight heats the ocean, water escapes into the atmosphere and falls out as rain. So as aerosols cut down sunlight by large amounts, they may be spinning down the hydrological cycle of the planet,’ Ramanathan concluded. INDOEX researchers documented a brownish-gray haze layer of about 10 million square kilometers over the Indian-Asian region. The particles within the haze were causing a threefold decrease in solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface as compared with the top of the atmosphere. The aerosols formed by fossil fuel combustion and rural biomass burning. Website: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-07-06.html [top] [end]Download the original article HEDON news - What’s happening in household energy? by HEDON (112 KB)[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 48: Promoting household energy for poverty reduction
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03 July 2007; Last edited:
11 August 2007; Version: 2 | |||||||||||
Pagename: WhatsHappeningInHouseholdEnergyBP48 @HEDON: BMFA | |||||||||||
