Member Database

Bamboo Used at Biogas, Solar within Eco-Village Developments
by Raymond Myles, Secretary General, INSEDA and Zareen Myles, Executive Director, WAFD

This case study briefly discusses the processes and strategies for promotion and implementation, mainly by utilizing eco-friendly bamboo building material and renewable-energy based sustainable eco-village development (EVD) actions.

Read more: Chapter "Bamboo use at biogas and solar within Eco- village" from the Publication "Combining Energy Access and
Climate Protection", 2014. Download Chapter (pdf, 566 kB).

Improved Cookstoves Stoves (ICS)
by Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal (CRT/N)

In Nepal mainly the women are responsible for cooking activities and collecting firewood, therefore using more efficient and smoke-free cookstoves is mostly beneficial for women. Improved cooking stoves (ICS) has efficiency of 15-25% and fuelwood saving is 30-35%. Thus using ICS reduces the drudgery of women as the cooking time and the fire wood collecting time is less. Moreover using chimney can reduce the smoke. The majority of the women using ICS have responded that they had asthma and eye burning due to traditional stoves but the situation has improved after installation of ICS.
Studies have shown that with the use of ICS human exposure to pollutants in the kitchen environment has been reduced by an average of 69% carbon monoxide concentration, 53% total suspended particle (TSP) concentration and 63% HCHO (Formaldehyde) concentration.

Read more: "Improved Cookstoves Commercialisation in Nepal" (pdf 228KB)

"Anagi" Improved Cookstoves Commercialisation
by R. M. Amerasekera, IDEA

Sri Lanka’s stove programme can be identified as one of the few large-scale successes in the developing countries’ quest for sustainability. The stove dissemination is fully commercialised and several studies have established that its production and social marketing process has reached sustainability in
Sri Lanka. At present, over 300,000 stoves are produced annually by 185 rural potter families and marketed by a network of private traders dispersed throughout the country. The stoves are demanded and traded like any other commercial product in the market without any external influence or intervention. However, to reach this level of success, several strategically structured moves with consistent efforts were employed over a period of nearly 30 years by several organisation.

Read more:
- "Anagi Improved Cookstoves Commercialisation", Chapter from Publication "Combining Energy Access and Climate Protection", 2014 (pdf 442 kB)
- "Anagi" success story, 2006 (pdf 133 kB)
- Construction of an "Anagi" stove, 2006 (pdf 168 kB)
- Article: "Great "No-smoke" kitchen in Sri Lanka" by Zareen Myles (WAFD), India.
Full article: 4 pages, (142kB pdf file) and Summary: 1 page, (426 KB pdf file),

Carbon Credit for Household Biogas Plants
by Raymond Myles, INSEDA, India

INSEDA’s Gold Standard VER (Voluntary Emission Reduction) project was aimed at mitigating greenhouse gases (GHGs) via household bio-digesters and at increasing the efficiency rate of the biogas plants by bundling household anaerobic biogas plant installed in the rural areas of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. Biogas generated from the bio-digesters helped in replacing firewood used for domestic cooking purposes, thus improving the quality of air in the cooking space and also reducing the drudgery imposed on women.

Solar Dryers for Income Generation
By Lalitta Balakrishnan with inputs from Madhu Bajpai and other colleagues, AIWC

The Centre for Rural Technology (CRT) Nepal, in partnership with AIWC India, carried out a 9-month project in 2005 to help rural women to use solar dryers in selected villages in Nepal and in India.
The project was supported by the Energy Small Grants Program Phase III of the South Asia Energy Initiatives (SARI), Enhancing Energy Security, and Rural Entrepreneurship through Energy Interventions.
The project helped to increase access of rural women to efficient energy devices, especially solar dryers, and to help them establish successful rural enterprises to improve their standard of living.

More information: Ganesh Ram Shrestha, Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal. www.crtnepal.org

Development of Hydro Power in Villages in Sri Lanka

The government has implemented the renewable energy for rural economic development project (RERED) aimed at promoting the use of micro hydro, photovoltaic or biomass in households not serviced by the national grid.
The project runs from 2002 to 2007. Under this programme it is planned to install 90 schemes with a total capacity of 3,762 kW ranging from individual capacities of 2.6 kW to 40 kW to provide electricity to 3,762 households. At end of December 2004, 31 micro hydro schemes were completed providing electricity to 1979 houses. The rest of the projects are in progress.
At present it is estimated that in nearly 250 off-grid villages hydro schemes are in operation.

Read more about the "Development of hydro power in villages" 2006 (pdf 16 kB)