The Charcoal Project

And now for a heart warming project from Zambia. What is there not to like about this story? It’s got a CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) component,  a complex partnership involving German engineers at a powerful utility and local Zambian church groups. And at the center of it is a nifty little stove with amazing tech specs.

If indeed this works out, let’s hope we see more projects like this sprouting elsewhere.

Is there anyone on the ground who can tell us how meaningful this all this? Hello? Lusaka? hello…?

The stove in question, the Save80 cooking system, is well documented on the BioEnergy listserv and offers some outstanding energy delivery characteristics.

Here’s the blurb from the press release:



Climate protection by way of highly efficient biomass stoves

Together with its partner organisations, RWE (a major German utility) has launched a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in Zambia. This is the first time a European energy company has been involved in a CDM project in southern Africa. The innovative cooking systems, which are financed by RWE, replace the environmentally damaging production and use of charcoal with sustainable biomass. In the first stage of the project, 1,500 local households in the capital city of Lusaka will be using these high-quality “Save80 cooking systems”. By the end of 2010, it is intended that 30,000 households in need and some 300,000 people will be using these innovative cooking systems. (Read the entire press release.)

Tagged: Carbon Offsets, How-to, Stoves