Project Objective
The overall objective is to contribute to environmental sustainability as well as rural poverty reduction and gender equality by increasing use of renewable energy in tea factories in Rwanda and Uganda. The specific objectives are i) to facilitate 100% sustainable biomass fuel supply for tea factories from wood plantations in order to save natural forests; ii) to contribute to rural electrification by assessing the viability of rural, renewable small scale power generation options (biomass, solar and wind) in tea factories.
Description
The project intends to improve the energy efficiency of six tea factories in Rwanda and Uganda and furthermore, help the factories obtain a sustainable biomass supply, using forest plantations. The project will assess the viability of new and efficient renewable energy supply options (solar and wind) for the tea factories as well as small-scale biomass-fuelled combined heat and power for rural electrification around the factories. Moreover, sustainable forest plantation management practices will be enhanced to save the natural forests, decrease deforestation and reduce fuel wood transportation costs. The main project outputs will be individual Action Plans for each plantation/factory and a common Sustainable Energy Supply Manual for Tea Factories. The manual will be based on the project results, and will be used to disseminate the outcomes to other tea-producing East African Community countries.
Relevance for Climate Change
There are approximately 120 tea factories in the East African Community region. Many of the tea factories in the region have both wood- and oil fired boilers for tea processing. A number of the tea factories have major energy concerns, mainly due to inefficient energy use and unsustainable fuel supply; the availability of fuel wood is coming more and more difficult from over-deployed forests.
The project will enforce tea industries’ abilities to mitigate and adapt to climate change and contribute to sustainable development. The project will introduce renewable energy supply options and energy efficiency measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that the emissions of tea industry will not increase in the medium and long term. In addition the project will, by helping the factories obtain a sustainable biomass supply from firewood plantations, eliminate the use of natural forests for energy use.
Innovation and Knowledge Transfer
Innovativeness of the project is based on the following aspects:
• Integrated tea factory/employee household fuel wood supply, considering various organizational set-ups,
• Integration of tea factories’ energy supply to rural electrification using biomass-fuelled mini-CHP,
• Introduction of solar technologies (especially water heating) for tea factories and near-by living households,
• Introduction of no-cost and low-cost energy efficiency measures by auditing and benchmarking current operation of tea factories.
• Dissemination of know-how of sustainable forest management practices.
The Sustainable Energy Supply Manual for Tea factories will be based on the results of the audits of the six tea factories, participating to the project. During the last phase of the project, a specific dissemination strategy will be developed for replication.
Implementation status as of May 2013 - All six tea factory reports finalised.
- The final report on enhancing sustainable energy supply for tea factories in Rwanda and Uganda under review.
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