[Stoves] FW: New York Times: Toxic Smoke Is Africa’s Quiet Killer. An Entrepreneur Says His Fix Can Make a Fortune

[Anderson, Paul]

Crispin,

Tom Price and others at Inyenyeri can answer better than I can.   Tom does read this Listserv (I think.).

Cooking with good TLUD stoves (Mimi Moto and others) saves fuel (fuel savings mean less cutting of wood, even if it is farm-grown or in the wild).

Additionality is that the households would not be doing this savings if they could not get the stoves, and the stoves are supplied by the project.

I see no objections to how this project functions.  My reservations are about the financing for reaching the many millions needing good stoves.   But we know that getting stove projects started takes much money.   Examples include some that are starting and others that have shifted into more stabilized production costs:

Burn in Kenya ---- Many millions at the start.  Now seems to be stabilized for production and business.  (not counting much money for the design and testing)

Inyenyeri -----   $12 million and now has 5000 TLUD stoves   (not counting the substantial investment to get the Mimi Moto stove designed, tested, and into production)

Rocket stoves -----  Years and much money at Aprovecho and the business efforts, including by SSM in china.

Champion TLUD  -----  Development work by Anderson and Servals, but with some millions by atmosfair to establish the carbon credit program (somewhere around 35,000 stoves).

Prime and Prof. M. Nurhuda  ---  Substantial, but I do not know the numbers

SNV in SE Asia  -----   LOTS of expenditures.

Solar cookers, alcohol stoves, and even LPG stoves are backed by substantial time and money.

Anyone can add to this list (or disagree with me).

But the BIG issue is financial sustainability with quality stoves.   And how much are the improved stoves actually helping the people is substantial ways (substantial is not defined here).  I will have more on this by the time of ETHOS in late January.

Paul

Doc / Dr TLUD / Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Exec. Dir. of Juntos Energy Solutions NFP
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu<mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu>       Skype:   paultlud
Phone:  Office: 309-452-7072    Mobile: 309-531-4434
Website:   www.drtlud.com<http://www.drtlud.com>

From: Stoves <stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org> On Behalf Of Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2018 2:36 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] FW: New York Times: Toxic Smoke Is Africa’s Quiet Killer. An Entrepreneur Says His Fix Can Make a Fortune


Dear Paul



I was discussing this with someone off list and they made the following observation, which seems relevant. They asked:



Is Inyenyeri solving a non existent problem?



The question is relevant because there are not forests left in Rwanda. The cutting of the remaining national forest has been stopped (securing the habitat of the mountain gorillas, mainly).  All wood comes from farmers that grow trees as a crop. This applies as well to the charcoal trade which is legal and sustainable.



Where is the wood coming from? As I understand the project when I reviewed it, the wood is brought to the pelleting house by people who trade it on a discounted mass basis for pellets. The rural community is therefore doing the foraging. They have to get wood somehow to cook, but when they do, they can take it to the processing centre and get bags of pellets in return – no money involved.



In town, the pellets are sold. The town pellets come from the discounted exchange in the rural area.



So…does the project still work this way?  If so, how is a carbon credit being calculated? There are no forests to “save” so the collection of wood is sustainable.  Isn’t some unsustainable fraction required for CDM credits to apply? Plus additionality (look it up).



I think it would be helpful if the project financing model were explained in a way that helped us to know how to replicate it.



Much appreciated.

Crispin




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