“If biomass is harvested in a sustainable way so that its long-term stocks are not depleted, and (it is) burned under ideal combustion conditions, it is effectively GHG (Greenhouse Gas) neutral.” from “Greenhouse Gas Implications of Household Energy Technology in Kenya.” American Chemical Society/Environmental Science & Technology. (2003) Authors: Rob Bailis, Majid Ezzati, and Daniel M. Kammen. The statement above would be music to the ears of solid biomass booster the world over were it not for one tiny, almost insignificant word: ideal. The lead-in to the full statement goes: “Under optimal conditions, biomass combustion results almost entirely in the Continue reading
Africa
Why solar cookers are not a viable option for the energy poor
Solar cookers do not work as reliable substitutes for traditional biomass cooking.
That’s in part because rural inhabitants in developing countries are often small plot farmers who must get up when it’s still dark out to get things going on the farm. Breakfast, the key meal of the day if you’re a farmers, is impossible to prepare before sunrise using a solar cooker.
The working urban poor have a different problem. If a family is out all day and doesn’t return until after dark, how can they prepare dinner? Also, where can you safely leave your solar cooker with food cooking when you live in a shanty town?
Charcoal: A Fuel in Urgent Need of Solutions
Sub-Saharan Africa today produces about the same amount of greenhouse gases from charcoal production and consumption as all of Europe’s transport combined.
If nothing changes, emissions are likely to triple by 2030.
IEA: Cookstoves are great but energy poverty still looms large on the horizon
The IEA said in an excerpt of its 2010 World Energy Outlook that some 1.2 billion people, equivalent to China’s population, would still have no electricity by 2030 if governments made no change to existing policies, down from 1.4 billion currently. The $36 billion per year only represented 3 percent of global energy investments projected by the agency to 2030.
The big win: energy efficiency for the BoP
Will 3 billion people ever see this? …on this?… … or this? This week 150 heads of state and a Who’s Who of global celebrities will gather in New York to make a last push for the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), the UN’s flagship antipoverty campaign which aims to improve conditions by 2015 for more than half of the planet’s citizens mired in poverty, disease, and environmental degradation. Noticeably absent from the meeting will be the One Tool that can measurably and directly deliver results across all eight MDGs: better energy efficiency for the almost 3 billion people on Earth Continue reading