[Stoves] Radical ideas from Paul and Philip {re: stoves and credits again}

Mon Oct 2 15:06:38 CDT 2017

*''Those latte-sipping poverty pundits who want to bring all the poor from
19th Century to 21st Century in 15 years still need to keep in mind that
from the 1920s to the 1990s or later, some 250+ million households a year
(average) in the developing world used charcoal. *

*I ought to write an energy history of the poor. For a million dollar
advance. The Library of Congress is just a few miles away. '' *

Sold! I'd be very happy to read an essay on that from you. Do you take
Zimbabwean dollars though? ;)
Do have a read though this fantastic book if you get a chance -
https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Fork-History-How-Cook/dp/0465056970

Lets not forget all the other charcoal that leaves Africa- there are whole
Facebook groups based around the global charcoal trade and much of it from
here going North. https://www.facebook.com/groups/210133302406124/

So from the above, it seems to me that even once my govt. is finished
giving away 20million$ worth of LPG gas stoves
<http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/markets/news/Kenya-to-spend-Sh2bn-on-cooking-gas-cylinder-plan/3815534-4099966-5fwo8n/index.html>
and
then some to 4.3million households...if UAE and the EU charcoal markets are
anything to go by, there will still be this huge demand for lumpwood
charcoal in Kenya in the future. And as you said, the biomass to provide
<https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/02/28/bidco-plans-to-use-bamboo-for-powering-its-ruiruthika-plants_c1514850>
it can easily be grown given the right political will.

Anyway - this is a very much welcomed initiative - I'm sure each person who
got a LPG gas stove is feeling stoked about it! (excuse the pun) And if
this happens, all the better:

"We will target mostly women and youth groups in the distribution. The
project will also help in the reduction of mortality rates associated with
household air pollution by 50 per cent and promote entrepreneurship in the
country," she said. Ms Maina said national government coordinators at the
grassroots will help in identifying the needy in the society who should
benefit from the project. She said having cooking gas as the most preferred
source of cooking energy in the rural areas will help in reducing
deforestation, as residents move away from the use of firewood and charcoal
in cooking. Ms Maina said the company will put up a mini plant and
distributors across all the 47 counties to ease the access to the cylinders.
Read more at:
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001242851/government-to-distribute-gas-cylinders-to-poor-families-in-a-multi-billion-project

*Cookswell Jikos*
www.cookswell.co.ke
www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
Mobile: +254 700 380 009
Mobile: +254 700 905 913
P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya

Save trees - think twice before printing.

On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 7:36 PM, Nikhil Desai <pienergy2008 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Crispin:
>
> Char-making stoves - household or commercial - can rapidly meet the
> cooking market where LPG and electricity are not accessible in volumes.
>
> Except where population densities are very high and multi-story buildings
> and heavy traffic the rule rather than the exception, high-quality wood
> stoves combined with expansion of charcoal is probably a "good enough"
> interim solution.
>
> I mean, for several decades, for roughly 250+ million new households
> (couples, with or without new children) over the next 15-20 years.
>
> Those latte-sipping poverty pundits who want to bring all the poor from
> 19th Century to 21st Century in 15 years still need to keep in mind that
> from the 1920s to the 1990s or later, some 250+ million households a year
> (average) in the developing world used charcoal.
>
> I ought to write an energy history of the poor. For a million dollar
> advance. The Library of Congress is just a few miles away.
>
> Since you wrote of Kenya possibly exporting charcoal to Rwanda or South
> Sudan, I suspect the Somali-Yemen charcoal trade is disrupted these days. A
> picture of charcoal  truck below attached. See a piece from the Economist
> three  years ago - Charcoal and terrorism in Somalia - A charred harvest: The
> unlikely link between Gulf lounges and Somalia’s jihadists
> <https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21623793-unlikely-link-between-gulf-lounges-and-somalias-jihadists-charred-harvest>
> and another around that time UN Orders Ship Searches Off Somalia to Find
> Weapons, Charcoal
> <http://gcaptain.com/un-orders-ship-searches-off-somalia-to-find-weapons-charcoal/>
> .
>
> What does WHO know?
>
> Nikhil
>
>
>
>
> [image: Inline image 1]
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
> crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear All
>>
>>
>>
>> “Kenya loses 7,000 acres of woodland to cooking;”
>>
>> I presume the author means annual net loss of tree cover.
>>
>>
>>
>> So, Kenya is covered in pretty good growing land, What is the government
>> doing to ensure the security of supply of energy to the biomass burning
>> sector? Any national energy policy document has a section in it called
>> “Security of Supply” and is usually filled with text about stores of
>> gasoline and oil products. I believe (without good documentation) that
>> Swaziland was the first country to include biomass for domestic consumption
>> in the Green Paper and White Paper version of their national energy
>> strategy.
>>
>>
>>
>> 7000 acres of woodland is nothing for a country the size and wealth of
>> Kenya. What are they doing about it? Rwanda, a tiny and heavily populated
>> country, manages to grow all their biomass fuel requirements, what’s up
>> with Kenya? It is 22 times the size and has only 3.8 times the population.
>>
>>
>>
>> Clearly the loss of forest cover for the energy needs of domestic
>> consumers is caused by a policy failure, not a lack of resources or
>> opportunity.
>>
>>
>>
>> The selling point for the Swaziland policy was that 77% of the population
>> relied on biomass for their energy needs. The original draft had not a
>> single mention of this in terms of ‘doing something’ to ensure that biomass
>> will continue to be available indefinitely.
>>
>>
>>
>> In British Columbia there is a long standing rule that if you cut a tree
>> for some commercial use you have to plant three more. Thus, while it may
>> look as if they are ‘clear cutting the forest’ in fact they are farming
>> vast areas on a 70 year cycle. The fact that is it longer than a human
>> working cycle is immaterial.
>>
>>
>>
>> Trees grow very well in Kenya. In the very dry areas Dr St Barbe Baker
>> recommended the planting of peach trees which are not only useful for food,
>> they provide very good quality firewood. It was his opinion that the desert
>> in the NW could be continuously pushed back by planting peach trees on the
>> margin. They are extremely heat resistance and drought resistant too (there
>> is a drought cycle in that region tied to the Hadley Cells and how they
>> evolve cyclically).
>>
>>
>>
>> As Nikhil points out, if there is no shortage of free fuel, fuel
>> efficiency is not necessarily an issue. They could even make charcoal and
>> ship it to Rwanda or South Sudan.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Crispin
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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