The Charcoal Project » alternative energy

NYT: Energy poverty on the agenda for 2011

Jean Kim Chaix — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:12:33 +0000

Energy poverty may not mean much to most people because up until now no one has bothered explaining the concept. And even though “energy poverty” was not mentioned directly, the knowledge vacuum began to be filled on December 24th when the New York Times published African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power, an excellent overview of how renewable energy and energy efficient technologies are dramatically changing the lives of rural African populations that lack access to modern energy. The story leads with the example of a family in rural, off-grid Kenya with no access to electricity. However, … Continue reading →

Are plants, trees, and forests the new oil fields?

Jean Kim Chaix — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 03:16:43 +0000

Concern about a land grab in Africa for the production of industrial-scale, ethanol-producing crops may well be justified, which is why bird-dogging the "African agricultural green-rush" is everyone's responsibility.

Continue reading →

Using cookstoves to protect Mountain Gorillas

Jean Kim Chaix — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:32:02 +0000

The pain of knowing that each year 2 million people — mostly women and children — die as a consequence of the inefficient combustion of household cooking and heating fuels, like wood and animal dung, is with good reason, the engine behind the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves this past September. But if the public health impact of indoor air pollution is not enough to convince people of the magnitude of the problem, then the UN’s most recent Human Development Report makes the clearest argument yet that Climate Change and destruction of the environment are the biggest … Continue reading →

The Charcoal Project & the creation of a global market for renewable energy & efficiency solutions

Jean Kim Chaix — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:35:33 +0000

Dispatches from: Emerging Solutions for the Energy Poor. Technological, Entrepreneurial & Institutional Challenges NOVEMBER 5 and 6, 2010 Wittemyer Courtroom University of Colorado Law School Wolf Law Building 401 UCB, 2450 Kittredge Loop Boulder, CO 80309 USA The 2010 Conference is designed to be a sequel to the 2009 World Energy Justice Conference (WEJC 2009) which began examining ways of mainstreaming safe, clean, and efficient energy for the world’s Energy Poor (EP). The EP number two and a half billion people who live on less than $1-2 a day and have no access to modern energy services. The 2010 conference … Continue reading →

Rwandan widows and orphans launch breakthrough waste-to-energy program

Jean Kim Chaix — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:00:01 +0000

Briquette programs that deliver high quality sustainable, alternative solid biofuels exist in major cities in sub-Saharan Africa, but not nearly at the scale necessary to significantly alleviate pressure on the environment from wood and charcoal production. There is clearly lots of room for growth of these types of programs that can create jobs, empower women, and delivering environmental benefits to the larger community. Triple bottom line, anyone?

Continue reading →

The Lost Kittens for the week of 18 October

Jean Kim Chaix — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:02:35 +0000

As the new week begins, we bring to you this compilation of Tweets and stories harvested during our internet fishing expedition over the past week. Have a great week ahead! – The Editors 1. Winner of the week’s top comedy award: 2. Nasa, via the NYT, brings perspective to Pakistan’s flooding woes: 3. Biomass more efficient than ethanol Biomass converted to electricity could achieve 80 per cent more “miles per acre” than the same material converted to ethanol, a group of United States researchers announced last year. As an example, the study by researchers from several US universities found that … Continue reading →

Why solar cookers are not a viable option for the energy poor

Jean Kim Chaix — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:51:49 +0000

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?

Continue reading →

Charcoal: A Fuel in Urgent Need of Solutions

Jean Kim Chaix — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:07:14 +0000

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.

Continue reading →

Marketing to the BoP, the death of appropriate technology, and false green solutions

Jean Kim Chaix — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:00:35 +0000

Best of the Web, Monday, 13th September (Click on the titles to read the full story.) 1. If you’re trying to sell stoves or briquettes to the energy poor, then this one’s for you! Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid – Almost a third of the world’s population earns $2.50 or less a day. The enormity of this disparity takes my breath away, but there’s an interesting flip side to it: That’s a market of more than five billion dollars a day. Add the next segment ($5 a day) and it’s easy to see that every single day, the … Continue reading →

World Bank appoints clean energy “czar”

Jean Kim Chaix — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:16:08 +0000

09 Sep 2010 17:02:03 GMT Source: Reuters * Second big World Bank hire in sector in recent months * Bank has been criticized for recent coal plant loan WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The World Bank on Thursday said it has appointed a California professor to lead its efforts to foster growth of alternative energy programs in developing countries. Daniel Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will be chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency, the bank said. The position was created amid unprecedented demand from developing countries for support to address development and … Continue reading →