[Stoves] K Smith Article in Energy for Sustainable Development

[rongretlarson at comcast.net]

Alex and stoves and biochar-policy lists: 

Thanks for catching this new paper by Prof. Kirk Smith. I think it contains some important new details for both the stoves and biochar lists. 

My guess is that Kirk had more to do with getting this new fund started than almost anyone else. 

The only sentence I disagree with is this in the second column, where Kirk says about today's stove options : 
"With an affordability limit of about $10, no such device is available today,...." 

He doesn't say so, but he must be thinking of charcoal making stoves - and Kirk is correctly concerned about the higher-than-$10 pricetag. My solution to that is to look for a way for the stove buyer to make (rather than spend) money while cooking. The money-making potential comes from making char - hopefully for becoming Biochar. But it would also be much better in a societal sense to avoid the environmentally damaging way most char is made today - badly, in pits.. But even if the stove only produces char for non-Biochar uses, we already know what people are willing to pay for char and so a business deal should be possible with a stove that lasts long enough.. 

A middle man (or better maybe an NGO) should be able to offer a stove at zero upfront cost, and accept payment on a monthly basis - either in local currency based on char produced by the stove user or in char. The person acting as leaser of the stoves could also supply the "perfect" fuel(s) and accept payment (or rental fees) for the stove in char with a pre-determined price or exchange ratio. I don't believe that $50 or $80 dollars (Kirk's numbers) per stove will be considered high, as the total cost of daily cooking goes down to something close to zero when you are producing something as valuable as char and the stove is as efficient as we know charcoal-makers can be.. 

The middle man (or NGO or stove manufacturer) is not the only one who can end up with the carbon credits - but that seems most likely - to build up the volume. 

So in sum, I don't see how any other kind of stove stands a chance - as long as we can find people/groups willing to consider ways to lease. Microcredit operations should fit very well with this sort of entrepreneurial approach. If given a choice between an ordinary $10 stove and one that makes char (being cleaner, moe efficient, easier to cook with, and no-cost) - why would anyone not go with a char-making stove? There are plenty of charcoal-making stove options to choose from in the future. Both the stove and biochar lists have talked about them a lot - not just the two in India that are mentioned (and those will have to undergo a little re-design to output char rather than consume it). 

This switch to charcoal-making stove just will take a new way of looking at stove sales/leases/benefits. These char-making stoves are NOT too expensive with the right sort of infrastructure. 

Kirk's references are worth looking at. I was impressed by a report found at a small new group that Kirk is a part of: 
http://impactcarbon.org/our-projects/stoves-in-kenya/kenya-stakeholder-consultation-report-2-1/ 
This deals with apparently the first stove project to qualify for carbon credits through the voluntary gold standard approach. 

I also found (but haven't yet read) 31 entries about gold standards under "stoves" at another cite given by Professor Smith, 
http://cdmgoldstandard.org/Search.83.0.html?&L=0 


Ron 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alex English" <english at kingston.net> 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2010 2:57:21 PM 
Subject: [Stoves] K Smith Article in Energy for Sustainable Development 


Stovers, 

Here is a link to Kirk Smith's take on the recent announcement of the 
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. 


http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/publications/2010/ESD_whats_cooking.pdf 


Alex 

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