Starting a clean cooking revolution - Impressions from the Indian Clean Cookstove Forum 2013

The India Clean Cookstove Forum 2013, organised by IGEN-RE on 25/26 November, 2013, was the first event on cooking energy of this dimension in India. The presence of high ranking keynote speakers, such as the minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and the participation of over 150 representatives of NGOs, entrepreneurs, research and finance organizations, as well as government agencies demonstrates the high importance attributed to clean cookstoves – a topic that has been around in India for over 30 years.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy,
calling for new action and cooperation in the clean cookstove sector

“The innovation of chulhas that was introduced in the 1980s didn’t work. The mission failed. What we need is a chulha that is effective, cheap and which people will be able to use. What we need are industrialists who produce this. Not because they are in love with our country and its people but to make money”. Referring to the National Programme for Improved Cookstoves, Farooq Abdullah, called attention to the needs of millions of Indian households suffering from indoor air pollution caused by the usage of traditional cookstoves, or so-called chulhas, and the crucial role attributed to the private sector to solve this problem. In order for the sector to live up to these expectations, adequate policy frameworks and market conditions have to be established requiring action and involvement of policy makers, donors, private enterprises, and the financing sector. The need for clean cookstoves is real and the technology to solve these problems is available; however, as Michael Blunck, IGEN-RE project leader, pointed out, the last mile to bridge the gap and reach consumers remains the sector’s largest bottleneck. To overcome this last mile, the forum aimed at bringing key players of the sector together in order to spur new dialogue and create a network for knowledge exchange and cooperation.

C. Liedtke, technical expert of IGEN-RE, summarising key
challenges and potential solutions for the supply of clean
cookstoves 

The event was preceded by a Practitioner Workshop where about 30 representatives from stove manufacturers and distributors used the opportunity to actively engage in discussions organised in breakout groups and jointly work out current challenges faced by the sector with regards to demand, supply and the market ecosystem. The pinpointed core issues identified served as valuable input for the panel discussions on the following day.

Representatives of manufacturers, NGOs, finance,
policies, and logistics discussed how the demand
for clean cookstoves could be created, their supply
improved and the market ecosystem developed

Panellists called for a more holistic and solution-based approach as opposed to a technology-driven one. It was pointed out that “the only thing that can be generalized about India is that nothing can be generalized: there are as many cooking solutions as there are cooking culture” (Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist), and therefore the main focus has to move away from clean biomass cookstoves to tackling the cooking sector as a whole: users, and the food they cook have to stand in the centre of the discussion. Also the engagement of a broader and more interdisciplinary base was called for since the subject touches upon many fields, such as health, energy and gender. The general lack of awareness and demand for improved cookstoves was repeatedly named as a core challenge for reaching economies of scale and the cause for fragmented markets.“Potential end-users have to be able to see: what’s in it for me?” says Sujatha Srinivasan, Director of Servals Automation, highlighting the point of a missing value proposition for users.Mass awareness and marketing campaigns, improved market data on consumer preferences as well as direct support in the form of end-user financing, risk guarantees for banks and MFIs, as well as seed capital, soft loans and a more favourable tax structure for entrepreneurs, rather than grant and subsidy based approaches were called for.

Michael Blunck, project leader of IGEN-RE, presents Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New
and Renewable Energy, and Mr. Alok Srivastava, Joint Secretary of the Government of India,
with the CDM Programme of Activities that has been successfully registered. The Programme
will reduce the cost of stoves for end users through the sale of carbon credits.

The continuing cooperation between GIZ and MNRE and IGEN-RE will make an effort to integrate these inputs, such as providing risk guarantees to financial institutions, into their activity portfolio. Since 2012, the cookstove initiative under IGEN-RE has followed a holistic approach engaging in activities ranging from creating new financing opportunities through Carbon Finance to designing a marketing toolkit for cookstove entrepreneurs, and undertaking field studies to better understand user preferences and market conditions.

To learn more about the issues discussed at the event and to follow the next steps, please visit www. Energypedia.info.

Adding new value to traditional ways of production - Innovative business models for watermills in Uttarakhand

Traditional watermill in Baliya, Uttarakand

Using the power of water and converting it into mechanical energy has a long tradition in Uttarakand. However, owners of traditional watermills, so-called gharats, are recently facing increased competition from diesel and electric mills located directly at the markets where they grind wheat to flour. Although many nutrients get lost in the accelerated milling process of diesel and electric mills, the shortened processing time and convenient location allows them to sell their products at a higher price than traditional mills.

In cooperation with the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA), IGEN-RE follows a two-pronged approach to improve the livelihoods of mill owners: firstly, IGEN-RE supports the process of upgrading traditional mill technologies to increase their efficiency level and output. Secondly, the project develops models to set up additional sustainable livelihood activities based on the energy generated.

Water mill owners in Baliya, a small village near Almora all share concerns for their businesses in the near and long-term future. “It is the older people that come here. They like our flour and appreciate its superior quality” the mill owners say. “They are loyal customers who don’t mind travelling the extra distance down the river. But what will happen once they are gone?”

Khemsingh next to his flour scales

Further down the mountains, Khemsingh, the head of a 15 person household and owner of a watermill located along a water channel close to Dehradun faces a different situation. He explains: “there is no competition from electrical or diesel powered mills here, and there are only a total of three water driven mills in this area, but the demand for wheat grinding is higher than these mills can cope with”. Kamla, who has been operating her family’s watermill on her own since her husband died 29 years ago, confirms this statement. For 12 hours she grinds up to 500kg of wheat every day – when the demand is too high or if she needs the additional income, she also works throughout the night. For each kilogram of ground wheat, she earns 1 Rupee amounting to a daily wage of 400 to 500Rs. “With a more efficient mill, I could shorten my workdays and maybe also increase my income”.

      

Kamla at her work place

A Self Help Group (SHG) of 15 members, with support from the local NGO IDS, has developed a promising business idea based on the assumption that the improved mills will shorten processing time and increase milling efficiency. The concept foresees to carry out bulk purchases from mills, package the flour, and sell it off to wholesalers who would then distribute and market the product in local markets. By emphasising the product’s premium quality due to the traditional milling process, they can achieve a higher market price. Currently, individual farmers deliver their wheat to the mills and pick it up again once it is processed paying either in cash or flour. The new set-up would enable mill owners to increase their daily throughput allowing them to raise their turnover and revenues whilst decreasing transaction costs and establish long-term business contracts. SHG members on the other hand would get the opportunity to increase and diversify their portfolio of livelihood generating activities. So far, the SHG has been successfully engaged in the set up of dairy farming businesses, sewing classes, intra group lending schemes as well as insurance provisions to members and non-members.

One obstacle for the venture is a general lack of market data, e.g. it is unclear whether a premium price for traditional watermill products can be achieved and how much output the improved mill as well as the SHG are able to deliver. Another difficulty that has yet to be overcome is the need for a certification process that guarantees the superior quality of products from watermills in a transparent manner to wholesalers and end consumers. In cooperation with local and regional stakeholders IGEN-RE is working to overcome these barriers and to identify additional potential uses of the energy generated by the mills which, for example, could be utilized as a source of independent and decentralized electricity provision.