Enhancing clean cooking options in peri-urban Kenya: a pilot study of advanced gasifier stove adoption

Abstract

Kenya has experienced a decade of relative prosperity with consistent economic growth and minimal political tension. GDP is growing by 3% annually and poverty rates are declining. Despite these gains, Kenya still has a lot of ground to cover to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. SDG7, which aims to ‘Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all’, exemplifies both Kenya’s achievements and the challenges that remain. Access to grid-based electricity and LPG have grown rapidly. However, over 90% of Kenyans still rely on polluting fuels like wood, charcoal and/or kerosene for some or all of their cooking needs. Substantial effort is needed to ensure all Kenyans have access to clean cooking options by 2030. We present the results of a pilot study in which gasifier-based pellet stoves were introduced in 150 peri-urban households. The stoves include an internal fan that improves combustion efficiency and reduces emissions by 90%–99% relative to charcoal and fuelwood in traditional devices. A subset of participants received stoves with ‘Pay-as-You-Cook’ (PAYC) hardware, which relies on pre-paid RFID card to activate the stove’s internal fan, allowing vendors to sell the stove below cost and recoup losses through pellet sales. We find that people were willing to include pellet stoves in their cooking routines and, in many cases, pellets displaced polluting fuels. We also find that PAYC hardware did not negatively impact adoption: PAYC users had higher daily rates of fuel consumption and reported higher willingness to pay for the stove than non-PAYC users. However, stoves were not used exclusively. Instead, people stacked pellets in combination with other cooking options, with pellets contributing to 12%–40% of their cooking needs (inter-quartile range). Though the project did not successfully overcome all of the barriers necessary to achieve long-term adoption of advanced pellet stoves, the results demonstrate that pellets could contribute to a portfolio of cleaner options. Social media abstract: In a pilot project, clean-burning ‘pay-as-you-cook’ pellet stoves were stacked with LPG and polluting fuels.

COVID-19 Lockdown in a Kenyan Informal Settlement: Impacts on Household Energy and Food Security

“…A recent intervention study assessing the acceptability of PAYG payments for pellets (with gasifier stoves) in peri-urban Kenya found that PAYG displaced traditional fuels in many households, and participants had higher willingness to pay for PAYG technology, compared with non-PAYG stoves. 44 Participants not interested in registering for PAYG LPG in the study community had higher average monthly incomes than the study population average, suggesting that the barrier of LPG affordability addressed by PAYG LPG was of less relevance to these households. Nevertheless, 52% of LPG primary users were interested in registering for PAYG LPG technology because of other advantages, including perceived increased safety (27%), customer service (13%) and the ability to monitor their LPG usage (12%).…”

“…Two-thirds of current kerosene users reported an intention to register with a PAYG LPG company (30%) or being interested in learning more about the technology (35%) (Table 2). A recent intervention study assessing the acceptability of PAYG payments for pellets (with gasifier stoves) in peri-urban Kenya found that PAYG displaced traditional fuels in many households, and participants had higher willingness to pay for PAYG technology, compared with non-PAYG stoves 44 …”

Is clean cooking affordable? A review

“…Some studies consider fuel expenditure per day [91,92], fuel cost per month [93,94] or total costs per year [32,95] (which may include investment, fuel cost, useful life of system, efficiency, and total fuel purchased) [71,96]. In LPG studies from South Africa, Brazil, and Kenya, a clean fuel study from Ghana and Uganda, and India's CEEW report, fuel efficiency was taken into account to produce cost per fuel unit rather than cost per fuel weight [50,86,[97][98][99]. Efficiency also affects cost per meal metrics of affordability [100,101].…”

“…4). LPG's higher energy density prohibits researchers from comparing fuels using cost per weight metrics [99]. Some studies evaluate affordability of different fuels by comparing each fuel's per unit metrics and implicitly define a fuel as affordable if its per unit metrics are cheaper than the alternatives in use.…”

Energy Efficiency and Emissions of a Natural-Draft Wood Pellets Gasifier Compared to Charcoal Cookstoves in Kenya

“…a WISDOM gasi er stove costed US$ 34) [3]. Other factors also affect the adoption of pellet gasi er cookstoves, and households will generally adopt a fuel stacking model [24][25][26][27][28][29][30]12]. Ongoing pellet production and gasi er cookstoves initiatives in Kenya include: Lean Energy Solutions Ltd., Iko Briq Ltd., Power Spot Ltd., Wisdom Innovations Ltd., and KIRDI [3,10,31,32].…”